swallow hard…

Posted on Tuesday 26 July 2011

So this morning we left Oahu for Maui and I grabbed a copy of the Honolulu Star Advertiser and there was an article – "Patients and Taxpayers will enjoy big savings as drug patents expire." It had a table with some of the drugs we’ve all been talking about:

Drug Patent Ends Made By:

Zyprexa October 2011 Eli Lilly
Lexapro March 2012 Forest Labs
Seroquel March 2012 AstraZeneca
Provigil April 2012 Cephalon
Geodon September 2012 Pfizer

Then I end my day of touristing and the television has an ad for a law firm advertising for women who took Zoloft or Paxil while pregnant – birth defects. I remember when Charlie Nemeroff and Zach Stowe were presenting the safety of SSRIs [Paxil] in pregnancy to anyone who would listen.

I guess this stuff follows no matter where one goes. An extraordinary twenty-five years – this rise of mass psychopharmacology. When I was watching that ad, I wondered if it will be generally known that the problems aren’t just isolated instances, but a sign of a pervasive widespread corruption that involved many prominent academic psychiatrists and universities and most of the major pharmaceutical companies. At times, I stand back and see how big it all is – and have to swallow hard…
  1.  
    SG
    July 26, 2011 | 4:20 PM
     

    TELL ME ABOUT IT, Mickey! I actually have to bite my tongue hard when talking with mixed company and one of them casually admits they’re taking a psych med. ‘Whoo boy. If they only knew the heinous, widespread corruption that spawned that pill they take every day. If they only knew…

  2.  
    Peggi
    July 27, 2011 | 8:52 AM
     

    SG, love your comment! I, too, have that “mixed company” experience where you don’t dare mention your serious reservations about the use of ANY psychotropic drug in a society drowning in them…and the “if they only knew” part. Even if some of those meds might have some “efficacy”, given what I know about the corruption that spawned them…the illegal marketing, the unethical clinical trials, the corrupt KOLs,on and on and on…how could I take such medication knowing all that?? And, I’m not even very sure about all the other medication out there, including cholesterol lowering drugs.

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