Editorial Note: This post merges the Go Figure sequence of posts from several weeks ago with the 329 series. In the wake of the French Revolution of 1968, the government was still tottering when on February 4 1970, sixteen miners died with twelve others maimed in an explosion at a mine in Lens in France. The mine owners pitched the event as an accident. It didn’t help their … [Read more...] about Go Figure: Study 329
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Study 329 Taper Phase
Editorial Note: It was tempting not to run a post today for fear it might get lost in the wash of the Clinton-Trump debate. But today is the fourteenth anniversary of the day FDA issued an approvable letter for Paxil for children, as well as the fifty-fourth anniversary of the 1962 FDA Act that created the playing field on which Study 329 happened. It's also World Mental Health … [Read more...] about Study 329 Taper Phase
Study 329 Continuation Phase
Editorial: We interrupt the Go Figure series of posts to return for two posts to Study 329. We will then return to Go Figure. All the fuss about Study 329 centers on its 8 week acute phase. But this study had a 24 week Continuation Phase that has never been published. Until Now. We might have Marty Keller to thank for this Continuation Phase. His big deal was the long term … [Read more...] about Study 329 Continuation Phase
Go Figure: A Geek Tragedy
In 1939, in the laboratories of Geigy pharmaceuticals, Paul Mueller discovered that DichloroDiphenylTrichlorethane DDT killed insects more effectively that anything else then available. Robert Domenjoz, the later creator of imipramine, had the job of evaluating it. He did the testing on lice that was to make DDT one of the best-selling pharmaceuticals in the world. He asked … [Read more...] about Go Figure: A Geek Tragedy
Go Figure on Perversity
In 1936, three workers at the Halowax Corporation in New York State, who had been working with chlorinated naphthalenes, developed chloracne - a skin condition that Viktor Yushenko's face brought dramatically to world attention in 2004, when he was standing as the pro-Western candidate for the presidency of Ukraine. Chloracne can be caused by many chlorinated compounds from … [Read more...] about Go Figure on Perversity
Go Figure: Digging for the Truth of Injuries
Editorial Note: In her comment, reproduced below, Sally was the person who best got to grips with what I was struggling with in last week's post and this week's and for the next few weeks. Drug induced injury is one sphere in which we get injured. Turning to other spheres may give us some ideas about how to handle the dilemma of a treatment induced injury - how to avoid being … [Read more...] about Go Figure: Digging for the Truth of Injuries
Go Figure: The Silver Lining Clouds the View
Editorial Note: Sally's first Go Figure post with its 100 comments outlines the basic dilemma facing RxISK - how can anyone who has been injured by treatment get people who have not yet been injured to wake up. The next 5 - 10 posts will pick up various ways this dilemma has been answered over the last century. All comments welcome along with any posts - something more than a … [Read more...] about Go Figure: The Silver Lining Clouds the View
Go Figure: Sally’s Problem with Whinging about Medicines
Two weeks ago in response to the last post in the Study 329 series, Sally MacGregor added the comment - that features as a post below. It's spot on. The problem is how to avoid being marginalized, becoming part of a 1%. How to capture the attention of the 99% for whom the meds work just fine thanks. There will be more on this theme over the next few posts. The whole point … [Read more...] about Go Figure: Sally’s Problem with Whinging about Medicines
Why Do People Sing?
In 1989, BBC ran a program Under African Skies covering the music of the continent. The program and music from it captured on Cassette and later Record became widely known. On Side 2 of 4 sides of cassette, there is a brief snippet of 4 children at St Joseph's Music School in Harare answering their teacher's question - Why do People Sing? Peter: People sing to pass a … [Read more...] about Why Do People Sing?
Club 329: Part 4
Editorial Note: This post perhaps should be called: There's Something about Leonie. The image above is of a Rapid Response she submitted to a BMJ editorial by Richard Smith and Fiona Godlee that BMJ published and unpublished and republished and re-unpublished. The full story is here. It again hinges around Study 329. The full transcript of her exchanges with Ben G is below. … [Read more...] about Club 329: Part 4