Implications

Implications, Money, NeuroPsyche

Is APA treatment advice tainted by pharma ties? (FiercePharma)

Some prominent psychiatrists have come under fire recently for thousands in
unreported income from drugmakers. Critics have said that these influential
doctor-researchers led the way toward off-label use of some powerful psychiatric
drugs–and perhaps their recommendations weren’t objective judgments but biased
by their financial ties to pharma. …

Implications, NeuroPsyche

Study questions long-term ADHD med use (FiercePharma)

The latest data confirm that there are “no long-term differences between
children who were continuously medicated and those who were never medicated,”
the Washington Post reports, citing the
Journal of the American Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry
. Meanwhile, the number of scrips for ADHD meds grew
to 39.5 million last year from 28.3 million in 2004. …

Implications, NeuroPsyche, Toxicology

The fool on the hill: an essay sharply critical of the psychiatric industry (The Lancet)

Antipsychotics are, at times, cruel drugs. Some cause shaking, salivation,
restlessness, infertility, stiff ness, agitation, and frail bones; others cause
obesity, somnolence, and increase the risk of heart attack, diabetes, and
stroke. Antidepressants also have side-effects, although theirs are typically
less dramatic: sickness, sexual dysfunction, a feeling of being numbed, or
losing one’s personality, and acutely increased risk of suicide. …

Education, Implications

Burt’s Bees, Tom’s of Maine, Naked Juice: Your Favorite Brands? Take Another Look (AlterNet C/O OCA)

I began to wonder about the other products I liked, trusted and respected for
their independence and their social responsibility. How many were really owned
by big corporations, who were going out of their way to hide the link between
the big corporate company with the small, socially responsible brand? It didn’t
take long for my list of disappointments to grow and grow. …

Implications, NeuroPsyche, Toxicology

Post resurrects “buried” Seroquel study (FiercePharma)

Meanwhile, AstraZeneca folks were worried about Study 15. As you know, internal
emails released as court documents show that higher-ups praised a company
doctor’s efforts to put a “positive spin” on “this cursed study.” Company
officials discussed their “cherry-picking” of data; one said, “Thus far, we have
buried Trials 15, 31, 56 and are now considering COSTAR” (which also produced
unfavorable results). In public, however, AstraZeneca publicized a less-rigorous
study showing that patients lost weight
on Seroquel. …

Implications, Toxicology

Case Not Yet Closed on Vaccines and Autism (Mercola.com)

After his findings were publicized, rates of MMR vaccine in the UK promptly
fell; Dr. Wakefield was fired from his position and later was charged with
professional misconduct by the UK’s General Medical Council (GMC). The paper was
also removed from The Lancet amidst all the controversy.
It has
now become clear that the allegations were totally false and amounted to nothing
more than a smear campaign. …

Implications, Money, NeuroPsyche, Toxicology

St. Petersburg Times:Seroquel maker wants to seal info from you, “for” you

The skirmish over document disclosure in Orlando is part of a hornet’s nest of
litigation against AstraZeneca, a British company with U.S. headquarters in
Wilmington, Del. More than 15,000 patients have filed over 9,000 personal injury
lawsuits. About 40 percent of these claims have been consolidated for pretrial
motions in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. …