When Trust in Doctors Erodes
"Soon, intuition and the personal experience of friends and family may seem as trustworthy as advice from a doctor in diagnosing an illness or judging a treatment."
Polypharm & New Antipsychotics Not More Beneficial-Just More Expensive
"modern pharmacological treatment may be no more beneficial than older ones, despite their added cost."
State Laws to Force Drugs on Mental Paitients Sparks Growing Debate_WSJ
"Mr. Stanley says he has donated nearly $300 million — including about $35 million in 2005 — to Dr. Torrey’s efforts, the bulk of it for research at universities and start-up drug companies."
Coalition letter to Charles Curie, Administrator, SAMHSA
We are, however, very distressed at what appears to us to be a significant discrepancy between your statements and the reality of SAMHSA’s role in implementing the NFC report recommendations, as well as other discrepancies between your statements and SAMHSA’s actions.
STOP the Mental Health-Child Psychiatry Industry From Diverting Public Funds
Internal e-mail exhorts university staff to lobby Congress for increased funds to increase number of children declared mentally ill.
S. Finance Committee Investigates Drug Makers Over Medical Education Grants_NYT
The Senate Finance committee is cracking down on drug industry "educational grants" to physicians, medical associations and "patient advocacy" groups.
Psych drug Rx for teens surge 250% over seven years_Brandeis
A Brandeis University study reviewed clinical practice (doctor office visits) and found that drug prescriptions for the treatment of depression, anxiety and mood or attention disorders in teenagers (14 to 18) increased by 250% between 1994-2001.
Drugs, Devices & Doctors – NYT Paul Krugman
New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman, got it right!
The real story behind the crisis at Merck, the Cleveland Clinic, and the medical industrial complex as a whole "is bigger than either the company or the clinic. It’s the story of how growing conflicts of interest may be distorting both medical research and health care in general."
National Plan for Universal Mental Health Screening:A Pharma Friendly Remedy for Societal Problems
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Text of power point presentation:
Slide 2: I’ll begin with the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health[1] recommendation to screen the US population for mental illness – 52 million children first. In no other democratic country has the government adopted a policy to screen the population for presumed, undetected, mental illness. The rationale behind this mind-boggling Orwellian nightmare is not improving mental health, but rather increasing life-long consumers of psychoactive drugs and to control behavior. Two NFC recommendations are designed to do just that. TeenScreen is promoted as a suicide prevention model when it in fact, increases the number of children labeled suicidal and depressed.
States Protest Contributions to Drug Plan – New York Times
States Protest Contributions to Drug Plan – New York Times Tue, 18 Oct 2005 The New York Times reports: “On Monday, the administration unveiled a new online tool to help Medicare beneficiaries choose a prescription plan from the dozens of plans available in each state. But some of the information…
Russian Roulette Medicine: More kids get multiple psychiatric drugs
Russian Roulette Medicine: More kids get multiple psychiatric drugs Wed, 3 Aug 2005 Stop the madness! Child psychiatrist, Joseph Penn, advises: “Parents shouldn’t passively accept whatever doctors recommend for children with behavior or psychiatric problems.” “We just don’t have the efficacy or safety data to back up what is common…
College Students Abuse of psychostimulants–Adderall / concerta / Ritalin
College Students Abuse of psychostimulants–Adderall / concerta / Ritalin Fri, 5 Aug 2005 The abuse of Ritalin and other prescribed amphetamine-like psychostimulant drugs by college students is spiralling as students have grown accustomed to rely on pills as a crutch for coping with pressure. Andrew Jacobs of the New York…