Editorial Note: This post offers our response to the Keller letter. It was published in BMJ in early February. Again all material is available on Study329.org. The response does not make much of the fact that not all of the Als in Keller et al have lined up to sign their letter. One of the intriguing points in all this is tracking the line taken by GSK and by Keller and … [Read more...] about Study 329: Response to Keller & Colleagues
Study 329: Nobody Pinned Anything on Us
Editorial Note: Following the publication of Study 329 Restored, Martin Keller and his co-authors gave an initial response in which they said Nobody Pinned Anything on Us and also that they would respond in more detail later. It took four months for this response to appear. Our Response will follow in the next post and after that we will update our background correspondence … [Read more...] about Study 329: Nobody Pinned Anything on Us
Study 329: Republic to Empire
Editorial Note: This post is from Sally MacGregor. In depositions and lectures I commonly state that I have had more support and information from colleagues working for industry than from clinical colleagues. I loved the analysis of the derailment of medicine and research through the comparison between a Republican and Empire structure, and the take-over of the former by the … [Read more...] about Study 329: Republic to Empire
Pharmaceutical Rape: Ending our Tolerance
Editorial Note: This is the final part of Laurie Oakley's series on Pharmaceutical Rape. All six parts with better imagery (no-one is enthusiastic about the Martin Shkreli images) and extra text are available here as a PDF Download. Pharmaceutical violence Pharmaceutical violence is a social issue as well as medical problem that demands a social response and medical … [Read more...] about Pharmaceutical Rape: Ending our Tolerance
Pharmaceutical Rape: Discrimination
Ed Note: This is the fifth and penultimate post in Laurie Oakley's Pharmaceutical Rape series. Pharmaceutical violence is a social injustice that can intersect with every other type of oppression and form of discrimination. Dehumanizing in its own right, pharmaceutical rape (and the cultural/medical denial of it) compounds the distress already experienced by persons in … [Read more...] about Pharmaceutical Rape: Discrimination
Pharmaceutical Rape: Doctors still know best
Editorial Note: This is part 4 of Laurie Oakley's series on Pharmaceutical Rape. Many who experience life-altering, adverse outcomes after taking their medicines as prescribed do not receive acknowledgment of what they have experienced, let alone the medical care they need. Medical systems do not recognize many treatment related outcomes and patients are therefore denied … [Read more...] about Pharmaceutical Rape: Doctors still know best
Pharmaceutical Rape: The Good Patient
This is part 3 of Laurie Oakley's series on Pharmaceutical Rape. In our society We learn a social script in which a “good patient” obeys the orders of doctors as authority figures. The ideal patient is a passive patient, subordinate to the physician. We are expected to relate to doctors as experts whose judgment we should trust when being prescribed medication. Because of … [Read more...] about Pharmaceutical Rape: The Good Patient
Pharmaceutical Rape: Cast of Characters
Ed Note: This is part two in Laurie Oakley's Pharmaceutical Rape series. WHEN IT COMES to pharmaceutical rape, it is no simple task to determine just who the “rapists” are (or to determine the safety or lack of safety of the treatments that they promote), but we are certain that the behavior exists, and that decisions are being made with no regard for the lives that are … [Read more...] about Pharmaceutical Rape: Cast of Characters
Pharmaceutical Rape is not a Metaphor
Ed Note: This is the first of a 5 part series on Pharmaceutical Rape by Laurie Oakley. We are looking for images to illustrate the series and would welcome any cartoons or other images that are germane to themes below. The first image here is Martin Shkreli, the man who raised the price of Daraprim by 5000% recently on the back of claims that profit was necessary for research … [Read more...] about Pharmaceutical Rape is not a Metaphor
Little Red Stethoscope
To be read in conjunction with Little Red Riding Hood. Once a newly qualified doctor, wearing her red stethoscope, set out to treat an older woman, bringing medicines and the milk of human kindness. As the doctor was walking through the hospital, the medical director came up to her and asked where she was going. "To Mrs Clinton's bedside", she replied. "Which path are … [Read more...] about Little Red Stethoscope