Thursday, July 9, 2009
Video: Get Past Your Addiction To Prescription Drugs
Dr. Gary Kohls explains how he helps patients get off their addictive psychiatric medications.
One of a series of videos featuring this compassionate doctor; to see more, go to the site. Recommended.
UK: Swine flu epidemic plan 'is muddled and contradictory'
A leaked UK memo warns that emergency plans for dealing with a predicted surge in swine flu are muddled and contradictory. From The Times Link
Separating Science from Promotion, Evidence from Propaganda
An indictment of Pharma from the Alliance for Human Research Protection. A must-see. PDF
Image: Vera Hassner Sharav (tres chic) and AHRP logo
Medical Journal Decries Airing of Conflicts
Wall St. Journal
Nonprofit Hits JAMA, Seeks Inquiry - AHRP speaks out
Link
Image: A JAMA cover we'd like to see.
Can You Trust Your Psychiatrist?
Article from the Huffington Post. Link
"Like all doctors, psychiatrists are marketing targets where mind boggling amounts of pharmaceutical money are spent in two important ways. The first is advertising directed at psychiatrists in professional journals, at meetings and by "drug detailing" which is sending pharmaceutical representatives to doctors' offices. The second is kind of different because it is advertising directed at you because you can increase doctor prescriptions for specific products, and thus profits. This is called "DTC" -- direct to consumer advertising -- known to be far more effective than just working on doctors. DTC are the ads you see on TV, hear on radio and see in magazines. Drug companies have substantially redirected ad money from doctors to consumers because the returns are much greater. Think about the ads you have seen for depression, bipolar disorder, erectile dysfunction, and social anxiety (rivaled only by ads for gastrointestinal, heart and diabetes medications). If you go into your psychiatrist's office and say I want to try this or that medication the doctor is quite likely to give you what you want. Psychiatrists, thus, are targeted to prescribe by the Pharma companies and their patients -- a powerful duo. We psychiatrists have our work cut out for us if we are to better filter and manage these demands.
What can you do? First, be an informed consumer. Just like with a car or washing machine you can learn about medications and other treatments for mental health problems. Turn to websites like your state mental health agency or the National Institute for Mental Health, the National Mental Health Association and the National Alliance for Mental Illness. Google key words about what you want to know, as you would for breast or prostate cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Ask others who have successfully navigated the mental health care system and taken medications. As has been said, caveat emptor -- let the buyer beware -- and be prepared.
Second, ask questions of your doctor and other health professionals. Rather than being a marketing arm of the pharmaceutical companies, be a prudent buyer. Don't be shy -- you are your best advocate. When you visit your doctor ask two questions: why are you suggesting this treatment for me and what alternatives do I have? When in doubt get a second opinion: any doctor who does not welcome a second opinion is not worth keeping.
Finally, recognize that medications for mental disorders often help but generally are not sufficient. Great reliance on medications has fostered inattention to individual and family therapy and skill building programs."
Does your psychiatrist check
for these medical problems?
From the great site of mental health advocate Pat Risser -
http://home.att.net/~LetFreedomRing/
"Like all doctors, psychiatrists are marketing targets where mind boggling amounts of pharmaceutical money are spent in two important ways. The first is advertising directed at psychiatrists in professional journals, at meetings and by "drug detailing" which is sending pharmaceutical representatives to doctors' offices. The second is kind of different because it is advertising directed at you because you can increase doctor prescriptions for specific products, and thus profits. This is called "DTC" -- direct to consumer advertising -- known to be far more effective than just working on doctors. DTC are the ads you see on TV, hear on radio and see in magazines. Drug companies have substantially redirected ad money from doctors to consumers because the returns are much greater. Think about the ads you have seen for depression, bipolar disorder, erectile dysfunction, and social anxiety (rivaled only by ads for gastrointestinal, heart and diabetes medications). If you go into your psychiatrist's office and say I want to try this or that medication the doctor is quite likely to give you what you want. Psychiatrists, thus, are targeted to prescribe by the Pharma companies and their patients -- a powerful duo. We psychiatrists have our work cut out for us if we are to better filter and manage these demands.
What can you do? First, be an informed consumer. Just like with a car or washing machine you can learn about medications and other treatments for mental health problems. Turn to websites like your state mental health agency or the National Institute for Mental Health, the National Mental Health Association and the National Alliance for Mental Illness. Google key words about what you want to know, as you would for breast or prostate cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Ask others who have successfully navigated the mental health care system and taken medications. As has been said, caveat emptor -- let the buyer beware -- and be prepared.
Second, ask questions of your doctor and other health professionals. Rather than being a marketing arm of the pharmaceutical companies, be a prudent buyer. Don't be shy -- you are your best advocate. When you visit your doctor ask two questions: why are you suggesting this treatment for me and what alternatives do I have? When in doubt get a second opinion: any doctor who does not welcome a second opinion is not worth keeping.
Finally, recognize that medications for mental disorders often help but generally are not sufficient. Great reliance on medications has fostered inattention to individual and family therapy and skill building programs."
Does your psychiatrist check
for these medical problems?
From the great site of mental health advocate Pat Risser -
http://home.att.net/~LetFreedomRing/
Vitamin D and Mental Health
"I've been wondering how vitamin D and mental illness are related,
so I did a search and found that vitamin D does, indeed, play a role in mental illness based on these reasons from the Vitamin D Council's website:
Epidemiological evidence shows an association between reduced sun exposure and mental illness.
Mental illness is associated with low 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels.
Mental illness shows a significant comorbidity with illnesses thought to be associated with vitamin D deficiency.
Theoretical models (in vitro or animal evidence) exist to explain how vitamin D deficiency may play a causative role in mental illness.
Studies indicate vitamin D improves mental illness."
From the Huffington Post.
Link
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Video: Generation RX
"For decades, scores of doctors, government officials, journalists, and others have extolled the benefits of psychiatric medicines for children. GENERATION RX presents "the rest of the story" By employing the expertise of internationally respected professionals from the fields of medicine, ethics, journalism, and academia, GENERATION RX investigates collusion between drug companies and their regulatory watchdogs at the FDA and focuses on the powerful stories of real families who followed the advice of their doctors - and faced devastating consequences for doing so. GENERATION RX is a film about families who confronted horror and found nowhere to turn for help - and how scores of children have been caught in the vortex of mind-bending drugs at the earliest stages of their growth and development. This powerful documentary also questions whether we have forced millions of children onto pharmaceutical drugs for commercial rather than scientific reasons."
Link to the rest of the film - a series of 8 videos
Antipsychotic Use Spiralling in Children -
"Medical research out of the University of British Columbia suggests the number of children taking medications known as atypical antipsychotics has increased tenfold over the past decade, CBC News has learned.
The drugs — a class of medicines used to treat psychosis and other mental and emotional conditions — can have potentially serious side-effects, and are linked to increases in stroke and sudden death in adults.
Health Canada has not approved atypical antipsychotics for children.
"None of the atypical antipsychotics approved in Canada [Risperidone, Quetiapine, Olanzapine, Clozapine, Paliperidone, Ziprasidone] are indicated for use in children," Philippe Laroche, a Health Canada spokesman, told CBC News in an email on Thursday."
Link - CBC
None of this is news to us. Finding Normal, CBC
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