David’s blog

Editorial Note: The image that was here  will be repeated and explained next week Who will Rid me of … Events from Washington to London and elsewhere surrounding the gruesome death of Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of the Saudi hierarchy link well with the difficulties everyone of us has when things go wrong on […]

Editorial:  There were no plans to write a part 5 to a 4-part series but this account by David Hammerstein, a Cochrane board member, clamors to be spread.  One more point to mention is if what Cochrane is doing now is junk, then the NICE and all other guidelines are also junk.  So there is […]

Editorial Note: This is the fourth in a sequence of posts on the possible disintegration of the Cochrane enterprise.  The most recent being the Valley of Death.  Archie Cochrane was one of a group of British doctors who came back from World War II committed to social medicine, some of whom like Richard Doll, who […]

Editorial: Part 3 of this Cochrane sequence follows on from last week’s Data Based Medicine. While the histories of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) celebrate a first use of randomization in 1947, and there was some use of RCTs, primarily in mental health, in the mid-1950s, RCTs were a minority interest until 1962 and might have […]

Editorial Note: This post continues a sequence that began with Cochrane Cock-up.  It centers on treatment efficacy. A third post will center on safety where Cochrane has failed even more comprehensively than on efficacy. A fourth will feature some of the protagonists. The Cochrane Collaboration took shape around two foundational ideas.  One was that randomized […]

Editorial Note: The Akathisia theme of recent weeks will move over to RxISK for the moment to leave room for some posts about an astonishing meltdown in Cochrane centered on the HPV vaccine. The Cochrane Collaboration began a quarter of a century ago aimed at trying to pull together the best available evidence on treatments.  […]

  This post by Johanna Ryan is part of a series on DH and RxISK centered on Billiam James’s .Akathisia Anthem Pamela Wible, M.D. has been one of the leading voices speaking out about physician suicide.  She has done a lot of good, too, by being open about the abuse of doctors by the system […]

The idea of managing lethal epidemics by imposing a quarantine flourished in Italy in the fourteenth century.  In their efforts to control the plague, Italian towns regularly put blocks on trade particularly maritime traffic from affected areas. This seemed sensible and may have worked to some extent. But if you don’t know what is in […]

Editorial Note: This post follows last weeks In the Name of the BBC.  There will probably be two more posts on Hostile Environments and The Anti-Facts Brigade.  The titles and this photograph come from the movie In the Name of the Father – a compelling 1993 move about the Guildford Four which comes complete with […]

A recent BBC File on Four program on Antidepressants in Children, presented by Paul Connolly, has drawn disparaging comments on posts here. Here is some background detail.  I was interviewed for the program.  My messages were as follows: That the trials of Prozac in children were identical to the trials of other SSRIs and other […]

Editorial: This post comes from a Belgian colleague. Belgium’s best-selling pop singer Stromae has been talking about his drug-induced illness all over the media since last year. He claims the anti-malaria drug Lariam (mefloquine) made him instantly psychotic and caused long-term anxiety problems which have already persisted for 3 years after stopping the drug, and […]

Editorial Note:  This post from Leemon McHenry celebrates Marion Lilley and the International Journal of Risk and Safety in Medicine.  It has a direct link to the issues in the last two posts on suicide in children and how and why we hide problems – The Spectre of Dissent. Most people trust that medical and […]

A little over a year ago, the British Minister for Health, Jeremy Hunt, said children’s mental health was the greatest failing of the NHS. Teenagers, primarily girls, are being seen by family doctors and referred to the secondary mental health services.  The waits are so long, they attempt suicide by the time they get seen.  […]

There were relatively few comments on The Thalidomide Catastrophe.  There were however more people getting in touch directly.  Some said they were going to buy the book.  Here are some more reasons to think about buying. The Once and Future Nightmare Many seem to think thalidomide is an old story they more or less know […]

Editorial Note: This is adapted from a piece by Martin Johnson who with colleagues has just published The Thalidomide Catastrophe.  This is available as of today on Amazon and at Onwards and Upwards.  This is one of the great books about what the twentieth century was all about.  A must buy, costing almost nothing.  Child […]

  Medwatcher Japan recently convened a symposium on the injuries caused by Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Vaccines.  Medwatcher are one of the most impressive pharmacovigilance groups in the world today. The statement from the meeting, issued just as Hanami (cherry-blossom) season ends, again notes the injuries gratuitously inflicted by bureaucrats and others – in this […]

Last week’s post – 18 percent – raised questions about company sponsorship and seeming patient empowerment websites.  A comment by Johanna Ryan afterwards kicked off this follow-up post. Johnson & Johnson gave NAMI $340,000 last year, and $540,000 in 2016. https://www.nami.org/getattachment/About-NAMI/Our-Finances/Major-Foundation-Corporate-Sponsorships/WebRegistryQ42017.pdf Part of that was a dedicated $100,000 grant for “First Episode Psychosis.” This is […]

Listen my doctor and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere…. You know the rest. In the books you have read How the British regulars fired and fled, — How the farmers gave them ball for ball, From behind each fence and farmyard-wall, Chasing the red-coats down the lane, Then crossing the […]

Editorial Note: Its an Irish custom to offer one for the road.  Having finished the trilogy on Outsourcing Fascism, here’s one for the road. A little over two years ago I wrote two posts – Little Red Riding Hood and Little Red Stethoscope that give me pleasure today – but also make me worry about […]

Editorial Note:  This is part three in a sequence of posts that began with Outsourcing Fascism and continued last week with Not Our Nomination.  Our Nomination The RxISK nomination for the SAS JM Prize is Lisa Rosenbaum from the Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston. Dr Rosenbaum has courageously stood up for the mainstream of […]