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
Search Results for: What to do about suicide
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
Petra’s Story: Cymbalta
This piece is the first of a series showing people struggling with the Kafkka-esque absurdities of modern healthcare. It is written anonymously. If you'd like to share your story, please contact us. — David Healy A little over two years ago my daughter’s partner was killed in a tragic accident while in the company of my son. Naturally, this caused terrible grief and sadness … [Read more...] about Petra’s Story: Cymbalta
Coincidence a Fine Thing
Coincidence can be a fine thing. No sooner had I finished The tricks that drug companies do live after them, asking for examples of maneuvers to add to a generally available repository of tricks, than up pops Robert Gibbons' paper, Suicidal Thoughts and Behavior With Antidepressant Treatment, with not one but two maneuvers and reminders of others. Dangerous liaisons First … [Read more...] about Coincidence a Fine Thing
Where Were The Adults?
Along with Lilly and GlaxoSmithKline (see Drug companies use studies the way a drunk uses a lamppost), Pfizer created ghost suicidal acts on placebo. Other companies did further things that concealed the suicide problem. Did Pfizer? Black box warning on pediatric use of antidepressants In 2004, following the lead of the British Regulator (MHRA), the FDA put a Black Box … [Read more...] about Where Were The Adults?
Heads We Win, Tails You Lose
In the late 1980s, Eli Lilly, when faced with an excess of suicidal behaviors in Prozac trials, set up a trial of Prozac in an interesting group of patients. These patients had what is often called borderline personality disorder or intermittent brief depressive disorder or recurrent brief depressive disorder. The trial terminated early. Placebo was sweepingly statistically … [Read more...] about Heads We Win, Tails You Lose
Burn in Hell
In my last post, Psychotic Doubt, we saw the most successful maneuver that has ever been devised for hiding dead bodies and silencing us when we are injured. We saw a mechanism that acts like the authority of a psychoanalyst (when Freud was still in vogue), or an ecclesiastical authority (until recently), to silence dissent and cause someone who has been abused to doubt … [Read more...] about Burn in Hell
The Bureaucrat That Didn’t Bark
Prozac’s commercial success after its launch in 1987 spurred SmithKline Beecham, Pfizer, and others to bring Paxil (Seroxat, Deroxat, Aropax), Zoloft (Lustral), and other Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) to market. En route there was the tricky problem of managing what was recognized within companies by the early 1980s but denied in public, namely, that these … [Read more...] about The Bureaucrat That Didn’t Bark
Drug Companies Use Studies the Way a Drunk Uses a Lamppost
Drug companies use studies the way a drunk uses a lamppost — for support rather than illumination. This quote adapted from English romcom author Jilly Cooper (who adapted it from others before her) seems an appropriate preface for a series of company approaches to data handling that have concealed rather than revealed treatment-induced problems. In another galaxy, far, … [Read more...] about Drug Companies Use Studies the Way a Drunk Uses a Lamppost
Welcome to Data Based Medicine
Adverse drug events are now the fourth leading cause of death in hospitals It’s a reasonable bet they are an even greater cause of death in non-hospital settings where there is no one to monitor things going wrong and no one to intervene to save a life. In mental health for instance drug-induced problems are the leading cause of death — and these deaths happen in community … [Read more...] about Welcome to Data Based Medicine