Friday material to think about…(updated)

Kid Overdoses in Antipsychotic Trial Caps a History of Screwups at Pfizer | BNET Pharma Blog | BNET — The FDA’s letter to Pfizer (PFE) describing overdoses of the antipsychotic Geodon given to 13 children in clinical trials is merely the latest in a long history of controversies that have dogged the drug at virtually every stage of its existence. Among those controversies: Discredited doctors allegedly prepared research on Geodon for the FDA; Pfizer allegedly promoted the drug for unapproved uses in kids; and the company allegedly paid a non-profit mental health advocacy group to promote Geodon for kids.

UPDATE: commentary on the above piece at Spit Bristle and Fury: Pfizer Overdosing Kids in Trials (Now Act Surprised) Like all of the major pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer has a history of misconduct, corruption and deceipt but when is enough really enough? They were overdosing children on Geodon in clinical trials marked by almost every kind of failure and misstep. It’s okay though, they got…(gasp!)…a warning.

Mourning the Death of a Pet – Well Blog – NYTimes.com — Among 106 pet owners interviewed from a veterinary clinic, 52 percent had lost one or more pets from natural causes, while 37 percent had lost a pet to euthanasia. Although many pet owners experience significant grief when a pet dies, about 30 percent reported grief that lasted six months or longer. Severe grief that resulted in major life disruption was less common but was estimated as high as 12 percent of those studied….the bond between people and their pets can affect both physical and mental health, and that the grief reaction that occurs after a pet’s death is “in many ways comparable to that of the loss of a family member.”

Leaving baby to cry could damage brain development, parenting guru claims | Society | The Guardian — why this isn’t common sense just shows how far we’re untethered. All animals tend to their babies distress. We instead are sometimes taught to ignore our good instincts and do otherwise!! — Leaving a distressed baby to cry on a regular basis could be damaging to the developing brain, according to parenting guru Penelope Leach, whose new book will be seen as a head-on confrontation with the tough-love approach of baby experts such as Gina Ford, who say parents should “train” their infants by allowing them to cry themselves to sleep.–In the latest salvo in the baby wars, Leach brings science to her aid, which she says has progressed remarkably in recent years. Using saliva swab tests, scientists have been able to measure high levels of the stress hormone cortisol in distraught babies whose cries elicit no response from parent or carer. Neurobiologists say, according to Leach, that high cortisol levels are “toxic” to the developing brain.

Holistic Recovery from Schizophrenia: Al Siebert’s double binds — The experience of people viewed as schizophrenic is something like being told by a smiling, powerful authority “I have only love and compassion for rotten assholes like you.”

PTSD and Neuroplasticity: Our Brains Continue to Grow Connections Throughout Life — The brain is so powerful and we are starting to understand that we can use our minds to shape our brains to help our minds. We can also use our minds to shape our brains to hinder our mind. Did you get that? Read it over again a few times, it will begin to become clear.

Shambhala SunSpace » “Practice: You Can’t Do It Wrong,” by Barry Magid — On meditation: Practice will expose the roots of our emotional distress. The Buddha taught, and our practice will reaffirm, that our underlying fear of change and our unavoidable physical vulnerability leads us in the futile attempt to hold onto something permanent, to imagine—against all the evidence—that our “self” can somehow be made invulnerable. Though we may start out with the fantasy that practice will be the road to that invulnerability, it turns out to be just the opposite. Practice teaches us to sit with the vulnerability we all try to avoid, and to gradually learn to abide within the ongoing flux of our ever-changing consciousness and ever-shifting physical sensations.