Novartis Paid Doctor Who Urged Use of Seizure Meds on Bipolar Kids

http://www.bnet.com/blog/drug-business/novartis-paid-doc-who-urged-use-of-seizure-meds-on-bipolar-kids/6050

Novartis (NVS) gave research funds to a doctor who advocated using the anti-seizure drug Trileptal as an anti-bipolar depression treatment in children — an unapproved use of that drug — the company confirmed to BNET. The doctor, Michael Jay Reinstein, once told a newsletter for parents with bipolar children that “high enough” doses of Trileptal were useful in quelling aggression in bipolar children. Novartis spokesperson Anna Fradle said:

He has done clinical studies on Trileptal on our behalf.

She declined to detail how much money Novartis had paid Reinstein over the years. The use of antidepressants and other pyschiatric drugs in children is controversial. It is not well-established that conditions such as depression, bipolar disorder or mania exist in children, or that if they do the appropriate treatment is a seizure medicine like Trileptal. Yet Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Shire(SHPGY) and AstraZeneca (AZN) have all funded research by doctors who advocate antidepressants for kids, and so did Forest Labs (FRX).

The admission illustrates how a small group of doctors can end up on the payroll of multiple drug companies, triggering illegal “off-label” sales.

Novartis agreed to pay $422 million to end Department of Justice allegations that the company promoted Trileptal for unapproved uses and paid kickbacks to health care providers to induce them to prescribe the drug. In the whistleblower complaint that led to the settlement, former Novartis pharmaceutical sales rep Steve McKee alleged that he and other reps would encourage doctors to ask about off-label uses of Trileptal...

Continues at link

Photo of the doctor

Statin Drugs Side Effects...

and the Misguided War On Cholesterol is an incredible book (an update of an the earlier book LIPITOR,® THIEF OF MEMORY, no longer available, now includes all statin side effects not just cognitive, hence a new a title and cover). A must read for anyone who is even remotely interested in how our sickness care, billed as health care, system works. Dr. Graveline, like many, obviously a very conscientious doctor, was suddenly faced with a number of dilemmas when he experienced transient global amnesia (memory loss) induced by Lipitor (one of the statin cholesterol lowering drugs). Interestingly the manufacturer even proclaims that there is no connection with its use to prevent heart disease or heart attacks yet the use of this useless drug continuers through slick marketing. For example:

"The Ontario government in Canada spends nearly 50% of its budget on health care, up from approximately 35% twenty years ago. In Canada $1.1 billion is spent on cholesterol lowering statin drugs like Lipitor each year. Ontario taxpayers spent $170 million for Lipitor in 2003-04." From NPI Daily <news@npinewsletters.com> June 21, 2005


http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2005/06/28/statin_drugs_side_effects.htm

More bad news on Statins and why you should avoid them here

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2003/11/07/bad_news_about_statin_drugs.htm

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2003/12/05/statin_drugs_memory_loss.htm

http://www.spacedoc.net/mitochondrial_damage_introduction

http://www.spacedoc.net/lipitor_thief_of_memory.html

Video - Food Matters

Education, not medication
Nutrition and prevention for cancer, mental health and other conditions
http://bjunki.com/Video/115/Food-Matters.aspx

"It's the lives that count"

What's wrong with psychiatry? A psychiatrist explains.

Canada: Mentally ill prisoners "warehoused" - CBC

"Canadian penitentiaries are becoming the largest psychiatric facilities in the country," said Howard Saper, correctional investigator of Canada.

"The Correctional Service of Canada assumes a legal duty of care to provide required mental health services, including clinical treatment and intervention. In failing to meet this legal obligation, too many mentally disordered offenders are simply being warehoused in federal penitentiaries. This is not effective or safe corrections."
Commissioned by the correctional investigator, the expert report entitled Under Warrant: A Review of the Implementation of the Correctional Service of Canada's Mental Health Strategy was written by John Service, former chief operating officer of the Mental Health Commission of Canada.
In reviewing offender access to mental health services, the report found that the intermediate care component of the correctional service's mental health strategy has not yet been implemented due to a lack of funding. Offenders requiring intermediate care fall between those needing primary care and acute inpatient care.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/09/23/mentally-ill-prisons023.html#ixzz10O4Gfhv2

Fortunately, there are often nutritional solutions. Because they require only proper physical screening and appropriate (orthomolecular) vitamins, they are easy and inexpensive. Let's get started!

Alex Schauss - Vitamin C for Hepatitis C and Heroin withdrawal

Information on physical causes of mental health problems, behavior and learning difficulties, and violence

http://www.nutritional-healing.com.au/

Related symptom checklist

http://www.nutritional-healing.com.au/content/questionnaire.pdf

The Extraordinary Walker Exam

http://www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/stradford.htm

29 Medical Causes of Schizophrenia

http://www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/causesofschizophrenia.htm

Some of our previous posts on the prison system

http://pharmaceuticalsanonymous.blogspot.com/2009/04/culture-soaked-in-alcohol-and-drugs.html

http://pharmaceuticalsanonymous.blogspot.com/2009/08/nyt-mentally-ill-offenders-strain.html

For more information on nutrition and mental health, please see our Links section. 

For further information on Corrections Canada

http://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/

Ivan Zinger, LL.B., Ph.D.
Director of Policy and Senior Counsel
Office of the Correctional Investigator
(613) 990-2690

Sugar: The Bitter Truth

Ending sugar addiction....an approach that works from a doctor who has had the courage to speak publicly about what is really happening to our food. Fascinating!

Robert H. Lustig, MD

Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, in the Division of Endocrinology Director of the Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health (WATCH) Program at UCSF

Dr. Lustig is a nationally-recognized authority in the field of neuroendocrinology, with a specific emphasis on the regulation of energy balance by the central nervous system. He is currently investigating the contribution of biochemical, neural, hormonal, and genetic influences in the expression of the current obesity epidemic both in children and adults. He has defined a syndrome of vagally-mediated beta-cell hyperactivity which leads to insulin hypersecretion and obesity, and which is treatable by insulin suppression. This phenomenon may occur in up to 20% of the obese population. He is interested in the hypothalamic signal transduction of insulin and leptin, and how these two systems interact. He is studying the cardiovascular morbidity associated with hyperinsulinemia, and developing methods to evaluate and prevent this phenomenon in children. He is also analyzing the contribution of the autonomic nervous system to insulin secretion and insulin resistance in obese children, and the utility of assessing insulin dynamics in targeting obesity therapy.

Dr. Lustig graduated from MIT, and received his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College. He performed his pediatric residency at St. Louis Children's Hospital, and his clinical fellowship at UCSF. From there, he spent six years as a post-doctoral fellow in neuroendocrinology at The Rockefeller University in New York.

Dr. Lustig has authored over 70 research articles and 35 chapters. He is the Chairman of the Obesity Task Force of the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society, a member of the Obesity Task force of The Endocrine Society, and on the Steering Committee of the International Endocrine Alliance to Combat Obesity.

http://chc.ucsf.edu/coast/faculty_lustig.htm

Hypoglycemia, mental health and addictions

Hypoglycemia

This is a common condition of an abnormally low level of sugar in the blood. Sugar levels frequently change throughout the day and may be normal sometimes and abnormal at others. Symptoms include weakness, shakiness, excess hunger, anxiety, outbursts, faintness, headaches, passing out, delirium, coma, hallucinations, excess sweating, the appearance of intoxication, marked personality changes, irritability, negativism, mood swings, depression, crying spells, and a panorama of similar mental symptoms.

Numerous patients given psychiatric diagnoses have actually turned out to have hypoglycemia, including those classified with depression, manic-depressive disorder, and schizophrenia.

http://www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/causesofschizophrenia.htm#Hypoglycemia

What is hypoglycemia?

http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/what_is_hypo.html

More articles

http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/i-articles.html

Questionnaire to help determine what ails you. From Blake Graham in Australia (PDF)

http://www.nutritional-healing.com.au/content/questionnaire.pdf