Story on Democracy Now A new study by the watchdog group Public Citizen has found that the pharmaceutical drug industry has become the biggest defrauder of the federal government, surpassing the defense industry. Public Citizen found that the drug industry paid out nearly $20 billion in penalties over the past two decades for violations of... Continue Reading →
AstraZeneca to Pay $198 Million for Seroquel Lawsuits
This is all over the news and I'm feeling pretty burnt out on all of this so I've not been paying much attention. But it is a big deal so here you have it. Seroquel, like all the atypicals can cause diabetes and metabolic syndrome. I too gained about 100 lbs with Risperdal (an atypical... Continue Reading →
Review of Anatomy of an Epidemic by one of it’s casualties
This is a review written by Susan Schechter from If You're Going Through Hell Keep Going where it was published first. It's a painfully intimate review that only one of us, those who've been harmed, could write. Thank you, Susan, for contributing this piece to Beyond Meds. Robert Whitaker's latest book "Anatomy of an Epidemic"... Continue Reading →
Just for fun: disturbing stats on BIG PHARMA
Source: Online Colleges and Universities
A Schizophrenia Mystery Solved? by Robert Whitaker
One of the enduring mysteries in schizophrenia research circles has been the disparity in outcomes between schizophrenia patients in "developing countries" and those in "developed" countries. The mystery arose in 1979 when World Health Organization investigators announced that, in a five-year study, patients in developing countries had fared better than those in the United States... Continue Reading →
Beyond Meds and Beyond the Dosies
Spit, Bristle and Fury posted commentary on the Dosie's and the post I published about them yesterday: Gianna Kali’s always informative and often pharma-critical blog, Beyond Meds was up for a Dosie — a new award “created to find the best examples of social media in pharma and healthcare.” Out of the 550 nominees, not surprisingly,... Continue Reading →
Doug Bremner on Fox News about docs who are paid by pharma
For video click here. This is an excerpt from the accompanying text: Emory's Dr. Bremner said he thought paying doctors to speak for drug makers was a bad idea. Bremner said he used to do it, until he got a wakeup call about six years ago. "I was going out to give a talk and... Continue Reading →
The loss of client agency into the psychopharmaceutical–industrial complex
How consumers of psychiatry get hooked for life. A brief synopsis from The free library: The psychopharmaceutical industrial complex (PPIC) and its adherence to the disease model pervades mainstream culture and greatly impacts psychotherapy. Consequently, the effects of the PPIC may have resulted in some psychiatric consumers adopting disease-model messages in ways similar to cult... Continue Reading →
Another pharma rep comes clean
And here is a news segment with three different ex-drug reps.
Drug induced dementia — the perfect crime (Grace Jackson, MD)
New book by Grace Jackson. Below is a description with permission from the author to reprint: Under the influence of declining birth rates, expanding longevity, and changing population structures around the world, the global prevalence of senile dementia is expected to increase more than four-fold within the next forty years. Within the United States alone,... Continue Reading →
Critique of our drug culture
Some excerpts from a piece off the Huffington Post by Francesca Biller-Safron It's difficult to remember when the slightly abnormal and "normal" physical and mental characteristics began hysterically calling for immediate medications in order to stop, start, maintain or prevent anything from happening at all, with some side effects worse than the diagnoses itself.... ...There... Continue Reading →