Some markers first. I am a committed believer in what may now be a last millennium concept - the medical model. I think antidepressants - the older tricyclics and ECT, not the more recent SSRI and other antidepressants - can save lives. I figure conflict of interest, crucially important in other areas of life, is of minor importance if not irrelevant in science. Although by … [Read more...] about The Junkies Take over the Asylum
Search Results for: What to do about suicide
Honey I Shrunk the Shrinks
Editorial Note: Prior to the Panorama program Prescription for Murder tonight, a flurry of experts denounced the scaremongering. This didn't just happen by accident. The denunciation effort was also more intense than the pressure brought to bear on the original Panorama programs in 2002-2004. The change is in part down to the fact that Sense about Science, which … [Read more...] about Honey I Shrunk the Shrinks
Change in Chicago: Boomerang
When it comes to branded and generic drugs, the listing of key issues in this image misses a trick. The labels are identical. This lack of difference is a consequence of the 1984 Hatch-Waxman Act which after two decades of dispute staked out a boundary between generic and branded pharmaceutical companies, part of which in the case of their drugs required the generic … [Read more...] about Change in Chicago: Boomerang
Change in Chicago: Dr. Welby on the Witness Stand
Editorial Note: This is part three in the Change in Chicago series covering the Dolin trial and its implications. Like part 1 it is written by Johanna Ryan - The Dolin Verdict and Playing Go. By twenty-first century American standards, Stu Dolin’s medical care was close to ideal. That’s a hard idea to swallow, given what happened to him in the end, but it’s true. The … [Read more...] about Change in Chicago: Dr. Welby on the Witness Stand
Change in Chicago: Playing Go
Editorial Note: This is a second post in the Change in Chicago Series looking at the Dolin trial and its verdict. There will be two more in the series. Being cross-examined in a legal case involving Pharma is rarely fun. The lawyers will have done their homework in spades. As one of them put it to me once: Dr Healy, I have read everything you have ever written. Looking … [Read more...] about Change in Chicago: Playing Go
Burn Baby Burn
Editorial Note: This is the third part of a talk giving to the BNPA on February 22. It follows on from Tweeting While Psychiatry Burns and Tweeting While Medicine Burns. The final group of slides are HERE. The talk you have just heard was first given in Toronto on Thursday November 30 2000 to mark the 75 anniversary of the University Dept and 150 anniversary of the Queen … [Read more...] about Burn Baby Burn
Tweeting while Medicine Burns
Editorial Note: This is part 2 of a 3 part lecture given on February 22 that began with Tweeting while Psychiatry Burns. The text and slides continue from last week. The slides for this part are Here. The numbering continues from last week. When his office was ransacked, Delay's world was turned upside down but psychiatry and doctors are still here - so we won, didn't … [Read more...] about Tweeting while Medicine Burns
Tweeting While Psychiatry Burns
Editorial Note: This is part 1 of a lecture given at a British Neuropsychiatric Association meeting in London on February 22 under the heading of Psychopharmacology: 1952 - 2017. The lecture will feature here in 3 posts of which this is the first. Slides 1 -11 can be found HERE. The Birth This picture is taken from a newspaper in 1952. It features Jean Delay wearing navy … [Read more...] about Tweeting While Psychiatry Burns
Venomagnosia
Editorial Note: I was asked to review Peter Kramer's Ordinarily Well: The Case for Antidepressants for ISIS. The in print review is HERE. There is a sister post on RxISK - with a better cartoon and where the word Venomagnosia s explained - Come Back When you Have a Medical Degree. This book was very difficult to review. In Ordinarily Well: The Case for Antidepressants, Dr. … [Read more...] about Venomagnosia
Go Figure: Murder or Accident?
Harold Shipman was a doctor in Britain, who was arrested for murder in 1998. He turned out to be a true Angel of Death, the most prolific known serial killer, who killed it is thought between two and three hundred of his patients by prescribing opioids in large doses. After his trial and conviction and jailing, he committed suicide in jail with no-one any the wiser as to why … [Read more...] about Go Figure: Murder or Accident?