Turning off the drug company drip feed to doctors

Turning off the drug company drip feed to doctors

"In the United States, the world's biggest drug company Pfizer has agreed to pay a record US$2.3 billion to settle civil and criminal actions brought against it for illegally marketing a painkiller that has since been withdrawn from sale.

Pfizer allegedly instructed sales staff to tell doctors that the drug Bextra could be used to treat acute pain at doses well above those approved by health authorities, even though dangerious side effects - risks to kidneys, skin and heart - increased with dosage.

It's a blatant example of a pharmaceutical company trying to boost profits by swaying the professional decisions of clinicians - something that also happens here in Australia - whether it's drug company freebies like the branded pens and notepads that litter doctors desks, or industry sponsored conferences and education sessions.

Regulating the relationship between doctors and drug companies is an issue that has been excercising the mind of Philip Mitchell, Scientia Professor and Head of the School of Psychiatry at the University of New South Wales.

From the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Listen now | download audio here.

Trying to KICK Drugs? Look at this page

DRUGFREE has very sensible advice regarding getting off psychotropic medications - and we like the boot graphic too. Drugfree

WARNING !!!!!
Never abruptly stop taking psychiatric drugs. You are likely to experience dangerous withdrawal effects. This has happened to many others before you. The safe way to quit successfully is to taper off slowly and with caution, and with medical support if possible.


The purpose of the following information is NOT to talk anyone into stopping taking their psychiatric drugs. However, every patient/consumer/survivor has the right to choose their own route to recovery, and not everyone is going to choose drugs. The following information is for people who have already decided that they do not want to take drugs, but do not know how to come off them safely.

The choice not to take psychiatric drugs is a valid choice, and should be respected.

The Icarus Project have created a very good resource for people who are coming off psychiatric drugs called Harm Reduction Guide Coming Off Psych Drugs.

Sadly, many psychiatrists do not tell their patients about the dangers of withdrawal. Simply stating that the medication has "Do not stop taking" on the box is insufficient information. Many psychiatrists leave patients who choose not to take drugs unsupported and do not tell them how to safely taper off these drugs. When their patient suffers withdrawal effects, they are told that this is because they stopped taking the medication. It is implied that this is proof that they need to keep taking the drugs, and information about the the true cause of the problem . withdrawal - is withheld. The drugs will then be re-prescribed, sometimes at a higher dose than last time. Don't let it happen to you.

Continues at Drugfree

For more information, check Ashton and Healey and other resources in our right-hand Links column.

Estrogen and Mental Health

"Estrogen Dominance and Mental Health
by Dr Igor Tabrizian
Taken from his book Nutritional Medicine: Fact & Fiction

Introduction
by Christine Sutherland
of the Lifeworks Group, Perth, Western Australia


Since discovering the work of Safe Harbor, we began to arrive at a much greater appreciation of the medical causes or medical influences on mental disorders, or seeming mental disorders. We then commenced a search to locate a qualified medical practitioner with the depth and breadth of biochemical knowledge and applications which we required to assist us to provide the best possible care for our clients.

We found Dr Igor Tabrizian, a general practitioner in Perth, Western Australia, specializing in nutritional investigation and treatment. Dr Tabrizian is leading the way to the practice of what I call "sane medicine": away from inappropriate pharmacotherapy and toward an informed and intelligent investigation and treatment of the patient's unique biochemistry.

I have a personal reason for my commitment to Dr Tabrizian's work. When you read the excerpt from his book, (at link) below, you will see his description of a typical example of the effects of Estrogen dominance. When I first read it I cried: from both sadness and rage. My own history is very much like that one: losing 6 babies, gall bladder removed in an emergency operation aged only 33, severe post-natal psychosis after the birth of a female baby and total inability to bond, and thyroid malfunction. And none of it needed to happen. What should have been glaringly obvious was completely overlooked. And how could it be any other way? This stuff is not taught to doctors in medical school. The only comprehensive biochemistry or pharmacotherapy they learn comes straight from the pharmaceutical companies.

Medicine must get sane. Doctors must be taught thorough biochemistry. We need to promote the work of doctors like Igor Tabrizian because they are true champions of health."

Continues at Link

Dr Tabrizian's web site is: www.nutritionreviewservice.com.au
Lifeworks' web site is: www.lifeworks-group.com.au

Haldol... and an elderly patient - by Gwen Olsen, author of Confessions of an Rx Pusher

Written by a former top drug company representative - drug seller.

It was the end of the third quarter, and I was behind in my sales quota for Haldol. That meant forfeiting a significant amount of money from the bonus pool if I didn't make quota. My territory was at somewhat of a disadvantage because I didn't have the large number of psychiatrists the reps in other metropolitan areas such as Dallas, Houston, and Austin had. It occurred to me that the most common drawback/objection I received from the general practitioners I called on with this product was patient compliance. (Patients would frequently discontinue the medication because of its side effects.) So, I determined the best way to build my Haldol business would be to campaign for the institutionalized patient. These patients were not only encouraged to take the medication; they were actually given the drug. This completely eliminated the compliance issue.

I set about scheduling training in-services in the local nursing homes and mental health and mental retardation (MHMR) facilities. I increased my call frequency on physicians whom I knew to have nursing home relationships and directorship responsibilities. I littered these offices and institutions with every type of marketing tool known to man. You could not look anywhere in my territory that there wasn't a clock, coffee mug, calendar, candy dish, scratch pad, or pen displaying the Haldol name.

During my so-called "Haldol Blitz," I made weekly visits to my nursing homes. The nursing staff was very supportive and appreciated being the recipients of all the goodies and attention that was rarely placed on them. (Reps notoriously do not like to call on nursing homes or abortion clinics.) They began to eagerly recommend to doctors that patients be placed on Haldol and actually kept track of patients who were put on the drug to report to me on subsequent visits. I rewarded these facilities and staffs with catered-in lunches and gift certificatesto local restaurants.

In my routine visits to one particular nursing home, I met Mrs. Ida Smith. (I have changed her name to protect her privacy.) Mrs. Smith was a petite, fragilelooking woman in her late eighties. Her snow-white hair was always neatly coiffed. She also wore a bright red lipstick that contrasted starkly with her delicate, pale complexion. Ida was a whirlwind of activity in her motorized wheelchair. She was frequently seen motoring from room to room, checking on and visiting with other residents. It was apparent the nursing staff was put out with Mrs. Smith's meddling. Ida often complained to staff about patients who were not properly being cared for. She was the self-appointed hall monitor and was not afraid to let people know she was watching. I got a kick out of observing the nurses' reactions when Mrs. Smith would demand someone change a bedpan or IV bag that had been left unattended. She could definitely hold her own in a debate.

Mrs. Smith became a bright spot in my visits to an otherwise gloomy, depressing facility that reeked with the stench of urine and disinfectant. However, I called on the home one day, and Mrs. Smith was nowhere to be seen. Before departing, I questioned the head nurse about her. "Oh, Mrs. Smith, she's had a bad patch lately," she said. "Her friend in 17B died, and it really upset her. She hadn't been sleeping well and seemed a little disoriented, so we recommended her doctor put her on Haldol. She's doing a lot better now...sleeping through the night...not combative and quarrelsome like she used to be." She concluded, smiling.(It was obvious she thought she was making brownie points with me.)

As I rounded the corner to the front door, I saw an attendant pushing Mrs. Smith in her wheelchair into her room. Her head was hung, and she was drooling on her pretty, pink gown. Mrs. Smith looked like a zombie. She was in complete disarray. Her hair was uncombed, and her signature red lipstick was missing. I felt a pang in the pit of my stomach. Had I been responsible for this turn of events? Surely, Mrs. Smith was not the patient-type for whom I had promoted Haldol. Or was she?

I exceeded my quota in all four of my products that sales quarter. Shortly thereafter, I was promoted to a hospital rep's position in Houston for the Baylor College of Medicine. I would never see Mrs. Smith again. However, my last memory of her would stay fresh in my mind and on my conscience for many years to come.

Link

Obama Health Care: Taking on Big Pharma

"Taking on Big Pharma

Paul Jay continues his conversation with Roger Hickey of the Campaign for America's Future at the Tides Foundation's Momentum conference in San Francisco. The first segment of this interview was done before President Obama's speech about his health care reform. Now, after the speech, they speak about what the president said and the feasibility of the health reform taking on the Single Payer system which would allow for everyone to be covered. They also speak about President Obama's centrism, and that his collaboration with major pharmaceutical companies, also known as Big Pharma. Hickey says that questions about the functioning of the drug and insurance industries and the deal President Obama invariably agreed to with Big Pharma, "are now politicized questions in the United States of America, while a few years ago they were not. Whether or not we get a good bill, and I think we will, that would be only the beginning of the process of getting public power countervailing and regulating and cutting back the private power of those insurance and drug industries that control our lives."

Bio
Roger Hickey is co-director of the Campaign for America's Future, an organization launched by 100 prominent Americans to expand the national debate about America's economic future. The Campaign seeks to empower working Americans, middle-class families, and the poor to make their voices heard in support of a populist economic agenda and an expansion of democracy. Recently, Hickey organized and helped to lead a national coalition of citizen leaders known as Americans United to Protect Social Security."

With thanks to the The Real News Network and the Tides Foundation.

NYT: Big Food VS. Big Insurance

Image: LAST BREAKFAST by Ron English

"...Our success in bringing health care costs under control ultimately depends on whether Washington can summon the political will to take on and reform a second, even more powerful industry: the food industry.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three-quarters of health care spending now goes to treat “preventable chronic diseases.” Not all of these diseases are linked to diet — there’s smoking, for instance — but many, if not most, of them are.

We’re spending $147 billion to treat obesity, $116 billion to treat diabetes, and hundreds of billions more to treat cardiovascular disease and the many types of cancer that have been linked to the so-called Western diet. One recent study estimated that 30 percent of the increase in health care spending over the past 20 years could be attributed to the soaring rate of obesity, a condition that now accounts for nearly a tenth of all spending on health care.

The American way of eating has become the elephant in the room in the debate over health care. The president has made a few notable allusions to it, and, by planting her vegetable garden on the South Lawn, Michelle Obama has tried to focus our attention on it. Just last month, Mr. Obama talked about putting a farmers’ market in front of the White House, and building new distribution networks to connect local farmers to public schools so that student lunches might offer more fresh produce and fewer Tater Tots. He’s even floated the idea of taxing soda."

~ Michael Pollan
Read the rest of his op-ed at the New York Times

Times UK: The growth of prescription drug addiction

Image: Mick Jagger, singer of "Mother's Little Helper", in pills

"The revelation about the mass of prescription drugs that were pumped around Michael Jackson’s body by his enabling doctor reminded me of a brief flirtation with the world of tranquillisers when I was living in New York. It was soon after 9/11, and having witnessed the terrorist attacks, I was jittery about a flight to LA. A friend suggested Xanax, one of the family of so-called benzodiazepine drugs that includes Valium, so off I went to my dishy doctor. Xanax was duly prescribed with a bedside manner (“Any questions or concerns?”). I discovered that the relaxing haze it induced was rather essential on all flights, anxiety or no anxiety. Fortunately, I was on a repeat prescription. No questions asked. As long as I had the $80 or thereabouts (insurance paid some, but by no means all, of the bill), the pills were mine.

Back in the UK, it was a different story. Contemplating the jet lag of an upcoming trip to Malaysia, I went to my GP to get sleeping pills. Once I’d convinced him I wasn’t an addict (he barely looked up from his pad during this “conversation”), I left with a prescription for four pills. Four! I felt as I imagine my toddler feels when I won’t allow her a second helping of ice cream."

Article here

For information on safe withdrawal from benzodiazepines, antidepressants and other psychoactive prescription drugs, look at
Dr. Ashton's Benzo Manual http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/
Dr. Healy's SSRI information - PDF
and other links in our right-hand column.