In 1996 Zoe Heller, the author of Notes on a Scandal, took part in a widely reported debate with Roy Porter about Prozac. She defended the drug. It had restored her to life. He said today’s miracle invariably ended up in tomorrow’s tragedy and asked, Why is it that we never learn? The story of a schoolteacher who seduced one of her male pupils In 2003, Notes on a Scandal came … [Read more...] about Notes on a Scandal
Blog
Model Doctors?
Another inquest may bring out the risks to doctors from their professional associations behaving as the American Psychiatric Association (APA) or the Irish College of Psychiatry has done (see Professional suicide – the Clancy case). She posed no suicide risk. She was put on citalopram Yvonne Woodley, a 42-year-old woman with two young daughters, ran into difficulties with her … [Read more...] about Model Doctors?
Professional Suicide – The Clancy Case
Shane Clancy, a 22-year-old going to University in Dublin, broke up with his girlfriend, Jennifer Hannigan, in April 2009. Despite his having broken the relationship off, he found it difficult without her. She, meanwhile, had found someone new: Sebastian Creane. Shane took a trip to Thailand and Australia, but aborted his travel and came home unhappy. His mother took him to … [Read more...] about Professional Suicide – The Clancy Case
Professional Suicide
On October 15, 2004, after FDA had put a Black Box Warning on antidepressants to draw attention to the risk that they can cause suicide, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) came out with a news release whose key statement was: ‘The American Psychiatric Association believes that Antidepressants save lives.” This was perhaps the first professional suicide note in … [Read more...] about Professional Suicide
The Story of SSRI Stories
Rosie Meysenburg's story For anyone interested in the effects of drugs, the website SSRI stories has been an inspiration. Rosie Meysenburg, its creator, was recently diagnosed with cancer and is terminally ill. The story of how she came to create SSRI stories shows what people can do to hold the powers that be to account. —David Healy DH: How did you get started … [Read more...] about The Story of SSRI Stories
Zoloft Study: Mystery in Leeds
In my blog post The best bias that money can buy I outlined how doing trials of their drugs in conditions like depression is the ultimate way companies hide bodies. That what is needed instead are studies of drugs in healthy volunteers. Here’s a good example of what a healthy volunteer (phase 1) study can show, and how the story of antidepressants and suicide might have … [Read more...] about Zoloft Study: Mystery in Leeds
The Best Bias That Money Can Buy
Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were adopted by FDA in 1962 following the thalidomide disaster. This was a way to manage the risks posed by potential poisons. If the toxicity from a drug could be shown to overcome to some extent the toxicity stemming from the illness, a risk-benefit ratio would be set up that would warrant taking the risk of giving the poison. But what … [Read more...] about The Best Bias That Money Can Buy
Press Release: Pharmageddon is here
For immediate release Toronto, February 28, 2012. Pharmaceutical companies have hijacked healthcare in America, and the results are life-threatening.In his new book, Pharmageddon, Dr. David Healy documents a riveting and terrifying story that affects us all. Healy also has an idea for the solution..."A medical classic the day it was published." "Pharmageddon is a must-read … [Read more...] about Press Release: Pharmageddon is here
The Spin That No Data Can Overcome
Roger Shepard's above illustration shows two tables of exactly the same size and shape. It’s an extraordinary example of how even when you know that the table tops are the same, the data changes nothing. The dynamics of perspective mean we continue to see things in the wrong way. Early on in the Prozac and Suicide controversy, Eli Lilly adopted a strategy that has “put … [Read more...] about The Spin That No Data Can Overcome
False Friends
‘Evidence’ is what the French call a false friend. You think you understand the word but you don’t. In French or Dutch, the Evidence in Evidence Based Medicine means that something is self-evident – as in using a parachute when jumping from a plane or penicillin for septicemia or an antipsychotic to tranquilize. You don’t need a clinical trial to work out what the right thing … [Read more...] about False Friends