Bitter Pill

Furious Seasons blog owner Philip Dawdy's article on researcher Erick Turner's paper on unpublished anti-depressant efficacy data and what that meant for the class of drugs was reprinted in the Missoula Independent last Thursday. It originally ran in Willamette Week in April, so if you missed it the first time out, check it out. Link

Turner’s paper leaves little question that antidepressants don’t work nearly as well as conventional wisdom would have it. Of the 30 million daily users in this country, many millions would be no worse off if they took a placebo every day. Yet doctors continue to prescribe the drugs, people continue to take them, and Big Pharma rings up the sales.

One could argue, “What’s so wrong with that?” If people are helped by believing that something works, even if it is not medically true, doesn’t it still work?

Carlat, who called Turner’s work important, nevertheless argues that the question may not matter.

“The fact is, we’re not allowed to prescribe placebos in our practices, and we have patients coming to us and banging down our doors because they are miserable,” says Carlat. “We can’t offer them a sugar pill, but we can offer an antidepressant even if its effect is 80 percent sugar pill. A lot of our patients are getting better. That’s why we prescribe antidepressants even in the face of this recurrent data.”

However, there is evidence that taking antidepressants can be harmful to some people’s health. In recent years, the FDA has mandated warnings on all antidepressants due to elevated risks of suicide and suicidal thinking in some people under the age of 25 who take the drugs. In addition, antidepressants can cause very intense withdrawal problems for some patients, most notably with Effexor and Paxil. The drugs can also cause internal agitation—akathisia—in some patients, and, tragically, antidepressant use sometimes has been connected, however peripherally, to school shootings, most famously at Columbine High School in 1999, where one of the shooters, Eric Harris, had been taking Luvox.

There is also the not-insignificant cost of the drugs.

The mentally ill are victimized - MIND UK

Image after Kienholz. "The State Hospital"

The Mentally Ill Are Victimised

Psychiatric wards are "like pool halls...riddled with illicit drug use, bullying, and sometimes sexual intimidation". Nick Bowles, Bradford University School of Health Studies (Brindle, 2001).

"A 74-year-old was forced to have sex...in the mental health unit at Yardley Green Hospital, Birmingham...A male nurse...was charged with rape and sexual assault...but cleared of both charges. Prosecution and defence admitted the woman had been raped -but there was not enough evidence for a conviction. She died shortly afterwards." (Craven, N, and Merrick, J, 2006).

"The National Patient Safety Agency said there were at least 19 rapes of mental health patients in England, and more than 100 other improper sexual incidents in psychiatric units over the last two years...Eleven of the rapes were alleged to been by NHS staff, but the agency did not disclose whether staff were also involved in 20 cases of consensual sex, three unwanted pregnancies, and allegations of exposure, sexual advances and touching". (Carvel, J, Hall, S and Boseley, S, 2006).

"Patients were slapped, hit, stamped on, starved, kicked and taunted, a hospital trust admits" (Camber 2004).

"Essentially, if you are a mental patient, staff have a licence to assault you, and you have no protection whatsoever" (Justin Horton 2001).

"Low in the pecking order, it is tempting for nurses to vent frustrations on those even lower" (Nursing Times 1997).

"Institutions give inadequate people what they want - power ...many...people are inadequate and unfulfilled and they lust for power and control" (John Vaizey 1959).

"Both male and female bullies are drawn to the caring professions because of the opportunities for power and control over vulnerable clients" Tim Field (Feinmann, 2001).

"Patients detained in psychiatric hospitals are being denied basic human rights...according to the independent watchdog for mental health services" (Guardian 2001).

"Mind-melting drugs are still routinely administered to meet the needs of staff..." Christopher Barber, RCN Ethics Forum (Carvel, 2002).

"...drugs have become used more widely for sedating 'troublesome' residents..." (Matthew Akid 2002).

"...half of the cases of restraints in mental health are carried out in order to enforce medication..." (Mulholland, 2004).

"...up to 22,233 elderly nursing home residents are being given powerful anti-psychotics without medical grounds." (BBC 2003).

"...research found...an estimated 200 psychiatric patients died suddenly and unexpectedly each year in England...causes include... inappropriate restraint methods and high doses of medication" (Community Care 2000).

"There are so many rapes in children's and residential homes and psychiatric institutions because rapists know they can get away with it there" Harriet Wistrich -Solicitor (Taylor, 2001).

MIND's document on how the mentally ill are victimized continues here.

PharmFree: AMSA Releases PharmaFree Scorecard

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PDF Link

AMSA Releases PharmFree Scorecard Grading Medical Schools' Policies On Pharmaceutical Company Access And Influence

Of all U.S. medical schools, only six received a grade of "A" on the American Medical Student Association's 2007 PharmFree Scorecard. The scorecard, which ranks medical schools according to their pharmaceutical influence policies, is the first of its kind and provides students with important new information about their medical school choices.

"It is important that we work to keep our medical schools and teaching hospitals free of the influence of pharmaceutical companies," said AMSA National President Jay Bhatt. "PharmFree medical students become PharmFree doctors and that commitment to evidence-based medicine benefits our patients and our colleagues."

The PharmFree campaign encourages medical schools and academic medical centers to develop policies that limit the access of pharmaceutical company representatives to their campuses and prohibit medical students and physicians from accepting gifts of any kind from these representatives.

Article continues at Link

Drug Reverses Mental Retardation in Mice

UCLA researchers discovered that an FDA-approved drug reverses mental retardation in mice with a genetic disease called tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). Because half of TSC patients also suffer from autism, the findings offer a possible mechanism for addressing learning disorders due to autism.

Drug Reverses Mental Retardation in Mice

Newswise — UCLA researchers discovered that an FDA-approved drug reverses the brain dysfunction inflicted by a genetic disease called tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). Because half of TSC patients also suffer from autism, the findings offer new hope for addressing learning disorders due to autism. Nature Medicine publishes the findings in its online June 22 edition.

Using a mouse model for TSC, the scientists tested rapamycin, a drug approved by the FDA to fight tissue rejection following organ transplants. Rapamycin is well-known for targeting an enzyme involved in making proteins needed for memory. The UCLA team chose it because the same enzyme is also regulated by TSC proteins.

“This is the first study to demonstrate that the drug rapamycin can repair learning deficits related to a genetic mutation that causes autism in humans. The same mutation in animals produces learning disorders, which we were able to eliminate in adult mice,” explained principal investigator Dr. Alcino Silva, professor of neurobiology and psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “Our work and other recent studies suggest that some forms of mental retardation can be reversed, even in the adult brain.”

“These findings challenge the theory that abnormal brain development is to blame for mental impairment in tuberous sclerosis,” added first author Dan Ehninger, postgraduate researcher in neurobiology. “Our research shows that the disease’s learning problems are caused by reversible changes in brain function -- not by permanent damage to the developing brain.”

Link

The single simplest thing that could be done to prevent retardation in children - see to it that they have sufficient IODINE from conception....

UK: Shrink declared plagiarist

Nice Rolex, Dr. Persaud.

The celebrity psychiatrist Raj Persaud was suspended from practising for three months today for passing off other scholars' work as his own.

The doctor, a regular on the television chat show This Morning and BBC Radio 4's All In The Mind, admitted plagiarism but denied his actions were dishonest and liable to bring his profession into disrepute.

A General Medical Council disciplinary hearing ruled that his "dishonest conduct" had undermined public confidence in the profession.

Story here.


We used to expect better from
the BBC.

Psychiatry is based on flawed theories, half-truths and lies; so in the overall picture of its dishonesty, this hardly matters....
If Persaud stole flawed and fraudulent materials, the charges should be different.

Drugging Children to Keep Them Quiet

Here is a blast from Merzenich on drugs for the "bipolar child".

Are pharmaceutical companies behind Chemtrials?

About 3 minutes into this video, you will see....