From blog.bioethics.net: It's a safe guess that somewhere at Merck today someone is going through the meeting minutes of the day that the hair-brained scheme for the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine was launched, and that everyone who was in the room is now going to be fired. The Scientist has reported that,... Continue Reading →
DSM-V or “creative writing for psychiatrists”
From the New York Times today comes another article about the controversial "psychiatric bible." The book where in the past over 50% of the people making up diagnosis had ties to pharma. (I'm sure it's not terribly different now) And pharma likes to take those diagnosis that come from behaviors (no not any measurable chemical... Continue Reading →
Direct to consumer advertising or pharma corruption 101
I wrote this about a year and a half ago. It's been updated and slightly edited. Most of this info is probably patently obvious to many of my readers, but I know the enormity of this stuff really just started hitting me a couple of years ago, so I think it's worth talking about here... Continue Reading →
More Gwen Olsen, the enlightened ex-pharma rep
About This Video (from Psychetruth) Added: March 07, 2008 Ex-Pharma Sales Reps Speaks Out - Pharma Not in Business of Health, Healing, Cures, Wellness. Gwen Olsen spent fifteen years as a pharmaceutical sales rep working for such healthcare giants as Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Abbott Laboratories. She enjoyed a successful, fast-paced career until... Continue Reading →
Imagine there are no drug reps
Okay--so I've been feeling a little heavy reading about all the injustice committed against those of us unlucky enough to be labeled with a psychiatric illness. Today something a little bit light to enjoy via Pharma Spy. Certainly a world without drug reps would be a world with alternatives and choice.
The Medicare Part D "Donut Hole"
I'm on Social Security disability and therefore also on Medicare. I'm not on Medicaid (or medi-cal, in CA). Medicaid is for people whose income is less than about $700 a month and they get all their meds covered indefinitely, but we're still rather low on the income scale and I can't afford my meds and... Continue Reading →
Disturbing details
A couple of stories about one doctor, who unfortunately represents many. These are New York Times articles--registration is necessary, but free and they don't send you a ton of email if you opt out. If you look at these links once the New York Times has archived them, chances are you'll be able to do... Continue Reading →
Direct to Consumer Advertising by Pharmaceutical Companies and Disease Mongering its Close Relative
We are currently and for the past several years bombarded with ads, on TV, magazines and billboards touting the wonders of many drugs. People watch these ads and the most vulnerable go to their doctors and most likely are prescribed the drug or a drug in the same class that they saw in an advertisement.... Continue Reading →
Meanderings
Though I am turning away in radical fashion from psychiatry, I cannot pretend to know what to do in all instances of supposed mental illness, most particularly how does one treat, if not through psychiatry, the acutely psychotic individual. The only instances in which I became psychotic, as I've said many times now, was when... Continue Reading →