“Bitter Pill” by Ben Wallace-Wells in the current issue of Rolling Stone is an excellent, informative, in-depth article providing an overview into the pharmaceutical industry’s immensely successful—albeit illegal—aggressive marketing tactics, for selling a particularly unsafe, dangerous class of drugs—the antipsychotics, Zyprexa in particular.
Using drugs to cope with battlefield traumas is not discussed much outside the Army, but inside the service it has been the subject of debate for years.
"It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine." Marcia Angell, MD
Good news but continued vigilance required! A backlash by outraged parents and advocates for responsible evidence-based rhetoric about physical and mental health issues, forced Dr. Harold Koplewicz, founder and director of the NYU Child Study Center, to pull the irresponsible, fear mongering "ransom note" ad campaign in which threats and…
A follow-up letter to FDA Commissioner, Andrew vonEschenbach RE: Thomas Laughren, FDA’s ‘s Director of Psychiatry Products who has been actively promoting psychotropic drugs–even penning his name to ghostwritten industry-sponsored articles and consensus panels.
Complaint about a surge of FDA administrative approvals for expanded use of highly toxic antipsychotic drugs for children. Approvals were determined by Dr. Thomas Laughren after secret deliberations–without disclosure of scientific data, without an advisory panel or open public discussion.
When scientists are for sale and "peer reviewed" journals publish planted commercial pronouncements masquerading as "science" news reports, the public is advised to disregard those "news" reports and wait for the evidence to be independently examined and either corroborated or refuted.
A scientifically invalid study by financially compromised psychiatrists is but industy’s latest effort to rehabilitate SSRI antidepressants in the wake of public disclosure that these drugs DOUBLED the risk of suicidal acts.
The re-prioritization of rapid approvals occurred at the expense of drug safety standards,
"Daubert lets judges have much too much leeway to follow their personal inclinations," says Stanley Feldman, retired chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court.
The question is can these visits overcome industry's propaganda delivered under the guise of continuing medical education (CME) courses which physicians must take?
“Catastrophic side effects may be rare, but they become predictable when we treat so many children with so many drugs.”
