See accompanying MAiD in Canada and TRD. Illustration: Lost in Medication © created by Billiam James Canada put Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) legislation in place in June 2016. This allowed for medical assistance in dying in cases where death was reasonably foreseeable. In 2019, in Truchon v Attorney General of Canada, the Superior Court of Québec declared the … [Read more...] about MAiD in Canada: Enduring Sexual Dysfunctions
Search Results for: pharmaceutical rape
The Fault Lies in Our Stars
The Fault lies in our Stars not in Ourselves: Randomized Controlled Trials & Clinical Knowledge In the Beginning In 1947, a trial of streptomycin introduced RCTs to medicine. From then, through to their incorporation into the 1962 amendments to the Food, Drugs and Cosmetics Act, occasioned by the thalidomide tragedy, there were questions about the epistemological link … [Read more...] about The Fault Lies in Our Stars
Fawlty Stars
The argument in The Fault Lies in our Stars features in Chapter 6 of the forthcoming Shipwreck of the Singular. It was sent out for comment to the following, who were chosen mostly by Mark Wilson. The responses received are below: Corrado Barbui, Lisa Bero, Alan Cassels, Angus Deaton, Jean-Francois Dreyfus, Andrew Leigh (author of Randomistas), Silvio Garattini (& … [Read more...] about Fawlty Stars
The NICE before Christmas
In Orders from Nowhere, Vaughan Gething suggested writing to Andrew Dillon of NICE. The correspondence had an Xmas Eve denouement - hence the title. It seems everybody figures NICE hold all the answers. The doctors who treated Stephen O'Neill claimed to be keeping to NICE Guidelines and only using drugs licensed by MHRA. They also conceded that Stephen was suffering from … [Read more...] about The NICE before Christmas
Ordinarily Well: Storm in a D Cup
Ordinarily Well: The Case for Antidepressants Peter Kramer 2016 This book was very difficult to review. In Ordinarily Well, Dr. Peter Kramer makes two arguments that I agree with. One is that clinical observation—the interaction by which a medical professional learns about a patient—counts for something. The other is that clinical trials, or evidence-based medicine more … [Read more...] about Ordinarily Well: Storm in a D Cup
Data Based Medicine and Cochrane Inc
Editorial Note: This post continues a sequence that began with Cochrane Cock-up. It centers on treatment efficacy. A third post will center on safety where Cochrane has failed even more comprehensively than on efficacy. A fourth will feature some of the protagonists. The Cochrane Collaboration took shape around two foundational ideas. One was that randomized controlled … [Read more...] about Data Based Medicine and Cochrane Inc
In the Name of the BBC
A recent BBC File on Four program on Antidepressants in Children, presented by Paul Connolly, has drawn disparaging comments on posts here. Here is some background detail. I was interviewed for the program. My messages were as follows: That the trials of Prozac in children were identical to the trials of other SSRIs and other antidepressant drugs in this age group - … [Read more...] about In the Name of the BBC
Pandemrix and Narcolepsy
Editorial Note: In Pandemonium and Pandemrix the question was when and what basis is it possible to agree with an obviously smart women, as AM is, that there must be a link between the Pandemrix she was given and the narcolepsy she ended up with. No one really tackled this head on. The answer has to be that if she and other smart people figure there is a link in their … [Read more...] about Pandemrix and Narcolepsy
Cisparency and Transparency
Editorial Note: This post continues Vampire Medicine and links to Reformation Day on RxISK and forthcoming posts - Here We Stand. Between 2002 and 2004, giving antidepressants to teenagers and the risks of triggering suicidality became one of the most high profile issues in medicine. Raising a profile should be the way to put things right but things are getting much worse. … [Read more...] about Cisparency and Transparency
The Junkies Take over the Asylum
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