Archives

Archive for October, 2013

also stupid…

As I tried to say in proxies…, while I can find plenty to criticize about the Clinical Research industry, I’ve realized that the problems come after the blind is broken, not before – that thing called publication bias. I mentioned two studies along the way by the same group about publication bias in psychiatric studies. Here […]

the best predictor…

In September, I noticed yet another John Mann/Robert Gibbons article in a major journal proposing that an FDA Warning be ignored [Varenicline, Smoking Cessation, and Neuropsychiatric Adverse Events] [very monotonous…]. I wrote then: When you happen onto a really long blog post with lots of quotes, you can usually count on the fact that the […]

an addendum…

( OPINION )

Yesterday, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry wrapped up its 60th Annual Meeting in Orlando Florida. As you might recall, they published Efficacy of Paroxetine in the Treatment of Adolescent Major Depression: A Randomized, Controlled Trial in their journal in 2001, concluding that "Paroxetine is generally well tolerated and effective for major depression […]

two points…

( OPINION )

A friend sent me a book recently. It’s nice to be known so well, because it was totally up my alley. Rather than simply recommending it, I’ll say that I can’t imagine not reading it.  It’s one of those about science books that succeeds in covering a complex topic without getting expectable mortals lost in […]

not a pretty picture…

( OPINION )

When I first encountered the Clinical Research Organizations several years ago, I smelled a rat. The ACRO [Association of Clinical Research Organizations] web site was all about the wonders of globalization – filled with rationalizations about why it was so good for the foreign countries [the clinical research industry: cross purposes…]. It screamed EXPLOITATION to […]

how it seems to me…

( OPINION )

DSM and the Death of Phenomenology in America: An Example of Unintended Consequences by Nancy C. Andreasen Schizophrenia Bulletin. 2007 33[1]:108-112. [full text on-line] During the 19th century and early 20th century, American psychiatry shared many intellectual traditions and values with Great Britain and Europe. These include principles derived from the Enlightenment concerning the dignity […]

stories like the one told here…

( OPINION )

Fluoxetine increases suicide ideation less than placebo during treatment of adults with minor depressive disorder by Steven J. Garlow, Becky Kinkead, Michael E. Thase , Lewis L. Judd, A. John Rush, Kimberly A. Yonkers , David J. Kupfer, Ellen Frank, Pamela J. Schettler, and Mark Hyman Rapaport Journal of Psychiatric Research 2013 47:1199-1203. Objective: Some […]

on the road…

( OPINION )

Lancaster Pennsylvania The Amish country was a nice break from the battlegrounds of the Civil War. While the Amish rules are confusing and sometimes paradoxical, they live in a more or less non-technological world. On the farm we visited, one of the sons runs a landscaping business requiring a truck. It’s owned by the son, […]

imprinting…

No, I’m not going to try to spin the Battle of Gettysburg back in 1863 into something about the pharmaceutical industry and medicine. But I am going to talk about it anyway: I grew up in the South in a place where Civil War Cannons and Monuments were as common as bus stops. As a […]

in the museum…

( OPINION )

Well, I’m on the road checking out some of those Civil War sites in the North I’ve never visited. Yesterday, we were in Frederick Maryland, a town that was turned into a hospital when the big battles in that War were fought nearby – Antietem [Sharpsburg] in particular, where 22,000+ died in a single day […]