In Epidemiology of Autism Spectrum Disorder on RxISK, I mention that for me a key paper in a reference list of 27 references was one by Ann Bauer and colleagues, who recognized limitations to the epidemiological data but nailed their colours to the mast in saying that there was sufficient evidence here that pregnant women should be warned of a possible link between … [Read more...] about Bauer Power and Informed Consent
Statistics
Truth, Trust and Health
Geoff Wilson invited me to give this lecture in Lexington Kentucky at a Medicating Normal meeting in May to a group of healthcare professionals. Don Marks gave me the chance to repeat it a few days later at Kean University's Psychology Department. Both groups were also asked to comment on Challenging My Doctor to Disclose. Bill James helped produce this Truth Trust Health … [Read more...] about Truth, Trust and Health
Cass or Cassandra: Doctors Bearing Gifts
CisMedicine – TransMedicine While The Once and Future Immunity about vaccines for RSV was being drafted last week, the Cass Review on Gender Medicine hit the news headlines. Cass trenchantly critiques gender medicine as it has been practiced in the Western world in the last decade. These 2 items intersect as hopefully this post will make clear. Trenchant though it was, the … [Read more...] about Cass or Cassandra: Doctors Bearing Gifts
It’s Health’s Illusions I Recall
There is a core concept shaping the ‘market’ in health, the concept of an assay. Few doctors or patients understand it. This article explains what assays are, how they entered healthcare and the consequences of failing to grasp the role they play. This post by Harriet Vogt and David Healy is an illustrated version of a peer-reviewed citable academic article Randomized … [Read more...] about It’s Health’s Illusions I Recall
God Does Not Roll Dice. Should Doctors?
This lecture If God Doesn't Play Dice, Should Doctors was given at the invitation of Leeza Osipenko and Consilium Scientific on May 18th 2023. Consilium are playing a big part in encouraging us all to think more about the quality of proofs we turn to in medicine in particular about Randomized Controlled Trials. There are many excellent lectures on their site. With lectures … [Read more...] about God Does Not Roll Dice. Should Doctors?
From the French Revolution to A.I.
This is the second of two lectures organized by Fanny Dargent who has a longstanding interest in adolescence and its problems and the dangers of psychotropic medication, along with Ariane Denoyel, who has authored the French version of this lecture below, and the author of Génération Zombie, the leading book in French on these issues. The first lecture centres on the case of … [Read more...] about From the French Revolution to A.I.
Women, Pregnancy, and Clinical Trials
A year ago, Peter Selley, featured below got interested in the trials for an RSV vaccine. I paid no heed but Peter had smelt a story. Soon after I smelt a related story about efforts to enrol pregnant women in clinical trials. Sixty years after we introduced Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) into the regulations governing the licensing of drugs, aimed at forestalling … [Read more...] about Women, Pregnancy, and Clinical Trials
Si Dieu ne joue pas aux dés, Quid des médecins
Voici une conférence donnée à l’invitation de Consilium Scientific le 18 mai 2023, organisée par Leeza Osipenko. Consilium joue un rôle essentiel dans la remise en question de la qualité des preuves dont nous disposons en médecine, en particulier pour ce qui concerne les essais cliniques randomisés contrôlés (ECR). Ces derniers mois, ils ont été à l’origine d’excellentes … [Read more...] about Si Dieu ne joue pas aux dés, Quid des médecins
The Boy With The Ponytail Who Played With Fire
He is 6’4” at least - 192 cm. He has blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. When he first suggested making a program about SSRIs I was not very helpful – very little of the media coverage by 60 Minutes or anything else has ever seemed to make much of a difference. They may have just increased the sales of antidepressants by keeping the names of the various drugs in the limelight. … [Read more...] about The Boy With The Ponytail Who Played With Fire
Scaremongerers of the World Unite
At a meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Brighton in June 2011, Dave Nutt, a professor of psychiatry at Imperial College London issued a call to arms to his audience at a plenary lecture to defend psychiatry which in Dave's view meant defending psychopharmacology. On a slide entitled ‘No Psychiatry Without Psychopharmacology’ he outlined the threats from treatment … [Read more...] about Scaremongerers of the World Unite