Did you know that among those who signed the Declaration of Independence there were five physicians? Read about them here. What might they say about our dependence on Big Pharma?
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Declaration of Pharmaceutical Independence
Did you know that among those who signed the Declaration of Independence there were five physicians? Read about them here. What might they say about our dependence on Big Pharma?
Monday, August 18, 2008
Some foster kids' doctors have ties to drug companies
Texas, Minnesota, Vermont and more. Story here.
Listen to former Pharma rep Gwen Olsen talk about how drug company representatives put a positive spin on dangerous meds at her site, Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher.
Update: Texas suspends drug program for kids
Listen to former Pharma rep Gwen Olsen talk about how drug company representatives put a positive spin on dangerous meds at her site, Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher.
Update: Texas suspends drug program for kids
A state mental health plan naming the preferred psychiatric drugs for children has been quietly put on hold over fears drugmakers may have given researchers consulting contracts, speakers fees or other perks to help get their products on the list, The Dallas Morning News reports.
The Children’s Medication Algorithm Project, or CMAP, was supposed to determine which psychiatric drugs were most effective for children and in what order they should be tried at state-funded mental health centers, the paper writes. In April, state health officials gave researchers the go-ahead to roll out the guidelines, but a month later, they delayed the protocol after objections from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office.
At most, the suspension indicates that state investigators fear fraud has occurred, according to the paper. At the least, the change reflects nationwide unease with potential conflicts of interest between leading medical researchers and drugmakers that fund much of their work. Publicly, officials say it’s because the state is suing Johnson & Johnson’s Jannsen unit for allegedly using false advertising and improper influence to get its drugs on Texas’ now-mandatory adult protocol, the Texas Medication Algorithm Project.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
The lonely madness of Alice G
The lonely madness of Alice G
ERIN ANDERSSEN
Globe and Mail Update
June 19, 2008 at 10:04 PM EDT
Alice G was driven mad by a broken heart, so said her doctors.
At 39, the unmarried housekeeper from Belleville, Ont., walked through the doors of the Toronto Asylum for the Insane, as it was called in 1893, and never saw the outside world again.
Her mother, the commitment papers suggest, had appealed to doctors for help. Alice spoke to people who didn't exist. She claimed to be a “prophetess” under orders from Heaven, and predicted she would give birth to two babies, one silver, one gold. She was reportedly infatuated with a local doctor.
Explaining the “supposed existing cause of insanity,” the physician who committed her scrawled on her form: “disappointment in love affairs.”
Beside occupation, he wrote: “Spinster.”
By society's standards, Alice G was to be pitied: childless, poor, lovelorn and, worst of all, insane.
In the asylum, what came to be called 999 Queen Street – and is now the site for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health – Alice was crowded into a dormitory, without a private toilet, where the residents regularly complained of chills and rats.
Read the rest of the article here
ERIN ANDERSSEN
Globe and Mail Update
June 19, 2008 at 10:04 PM EDT
Alice G was driven mad by a broken heart, so said her doctors.
At 39, the unmarried housekeeper from Belleville, Ont., walked through the doors of the Toronto Asylum for the Insane, as it was called in 1893, and never saw the outside world again.
Her mother, the commitment papers suggest, had appealed to doctors for help. Alice spoke to people who didn't exist. She claimed to be a “prophetess” under orders from Heaven, and predicted she would give birth to two babies, one silver, one gold. She was reportedly infatuated with a local doctor.
Explaining the “supposed existing cause of insanity,” the physician who committed her scrawled on her form: “disappointment in love affairs.”
Beside occupation, he wrote: “Spinster.”
By society's standards, Alice G was to be pitied: childless, poor, lovelorn and, worst of all, insane.
In the asylum, what came to be called 999 Queen Street – and is now the site for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health – Alice was crowded into a dormitory, without a private toilet, where the residents regularly complained of chills and rats.
Read the rest of the article here
Monday, August 4, 2008
From Pills to Power
You paid dearly for the meds you no longer take.
This plan is definitely better than throwing old drugs into the sewer system.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Why does your insurer know what meds you take?
"That prescription you just picked up at the drugstore could hurt your chances of getting health insurance.
An untold number of people have been rejected for medical coverage for a reason they never could have guessed: Insurance companies are using huge, commercially available prescription databases to screen out applicants based on their drug purchases.
Privacy and consumer advocates warn that the information can easily be misinterpreted or knowingly misused. At a minimum, the practice is adding another layer of anxiety to a marketplace that many consumers already find baffling. "It's making it harder to find insurance for people," says Jay Horowitz, an independent insurance agent in Overland Park, Kan.
The obstacle primarily confronts people seeking individual health insurance, not those covered under an employer's plan. Walter and Paula Shelton of Gilbert, La., applied to Humana (HUM) in February. They were rejected by the large Louisville insurer after a company representative pulled their drug profiles and questioned them over the telephone about prescriptions from Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) and Randalls, part of the Safeway grocery chain, for blood-pressure and anti-depressant medications.
MENTAL HEALTH IS A RED FLAG
Walter Shelton, a 57-year-old safety consultant in the oil and gas industry, says he tried to explain that the medications weren't for serious ailments. The blood-pressure prescription related to a minor problem his wife, Paula, had with swelling of her ankles. The antidepressant was prescribed to help her sleep—a common "off-label" treatment doctors advise for some menopausal women. But drugs for depression and other mental health conditions are often red flags to insurers."
Read the rest here
An untold number of people have been rejected for medical coverage for a reason they never could have guessed: Insurance companies are using huge, commercially available prescription databases to screen out applicants based on their drug purchases.
Privacy and consumer advocates warn that the information can easily be misinterpreted or knowingly misused. At a minimum, the practice is adding another layer of anxiety to a marketplace that many consumers already find baffling. "It's making it harder to find insurance for people," says Jay Horowitz, an independent insurance agent in Overland Park, Kan.
The obstacle primarily confronts people seeking individual health insurance, not those covered under an employer's plan. Walter and Paula Shelton of Gilbert, La., applied to Humana (HUM) in February. They were rejected by the large Louisville insurer after a company representative pulled their drug profiles and questioned them over the telephone about prescriptions from Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) and Randalls, part of the Safeway grocery chain, for blood-pressure and anti-depressant medications.
MENTAL HEALTH IS A RED FLAG
Walter Shelton, a 57-year-old safety consultant in the oil and gas industry, says he tried to explain that the medications weren't for serious ailments. The blood-pressure prescription related to a minor problem his wife, Paula, had with swelling of her ankles. The antidepressant was prescribed to help her sleep—a common "off-label" treatment doctors advise for some menopausal women. But drugs for depression and other mental health conditions are often red flags to insurers."
Read the rest here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
