While I’ve given up political blogging for good, there is a story I followed in the past that may finally be coming to a long awaited resolution. It’s the story of Burma [Myanmar] which is under a military dictatorship backed by the world’s largest standing army. Since my summary in 2007 [getting up to speed […]
Tom Jefferson is an epidemiologist with the Cochrane Collaboration- a central figure in the reviews of Tamiflu® concluding that it was not the panacea for influenza claimed by the manufacturer. Later, along with Peter Doshi, David Healy, Kay Dickersin, and Swaroop Vedula, he authored the RIAT proposal [see Restoring invisible and abandoned trials: a call […]
This is just some fluff. After all this time looking at the industry-funded clinical trials [RCTs], I’ve learned a few tricks for spotting the mechanics of deceit being used, but I realize that I need to say a bit about the basic science of RCTs before attempting to catalog things to look for. Data Transparency […]
Brain expert: Why I jumped ship to Google Silicon Valley offers a fresh way to tackle conditions such as schizophrenia says US mental-health expert Thomas Insel The New Scientist By Sally Adee Nov 4, 2015 Why did you leave the National Institute of Mental Health to work for Google? I have to confess that after […]
These are some links to articles I’ve reviewed in the recent past – industry funded, professionally-ghost-written, clinical trials of the newer atypical antipsychotics published in highly ranked, peer reviewed, academic journals. There are some other things they share in common [I made it easy with my red highlighting]: Lurasidone in the treatment of schizophrenia: a […]
Four years ago, shortly after it became apparent that PHARMA was exiting CNS drug development en mass, there was a new Atypical Antipsychotic approved by the FDA for Schizophrenia – Lurasidone [Latuda®]. Since my interest in the FDA and the psychoactive drugs had come after all the previous approvals, I had never gotten in on […]
I should’ve just let things lie with my last post – stuck with my bit of sarcasm and moved on. Instead, I clicked on the link that lead to Fusion‘s interview of Dr. Insel, and it wound me up all over again. I’ve characterized Dr. Insel as a breakthrough·freak…– moving from one shiny object to […]
Google’s Latest Hire Has a Creepy Plan to Track Your Mental Health GIZMODO by Annalee Newitz 10/27/15 Google’s parent company Alphabet has just hired Thomas Insel, the former head of the National Institute of Mental Health, who has some pretty weird ideas about what his new job will entail. Insel told a crowd at Chicago […]
While it is not fashionable to talk of psychoanalysis or other mind theories these days, I can think of no other way to approach this editorial by the editor of the New England Journal supporting Robert Califf’s nomination for the leadership of the FDA. And the particular mind theory isn’t really psychoanalytic, it’s just what’s […]