The Dan Markingson case is one of those that asks us all to re-examine our beliefs. Such cases can be a screen on which to project our pre-existing thoughts or it can be a new page. Whichever way you take it – the true drama of his suicide, the pictures of his childhood posted on […]
hat tip to Mike Howard… I said, "Carl Elliot, a bioethicist, has mounted a campaign to have this case investigated, so far without success" in the last post [the rightest of causes…]. That doesn’t tell the whole story. They succeeded in getting Dan’s Law passed in the legislature unanimously. And also thanks to Mike Howard, […]
In the summer of 2003, Dan Markingson became intensely psychotic with apocalyptic delusions and the belief that he would be called to become a murderer. After threatening to kill his mother, he was involuntarily hospitalized in the Fall and started on antipsychotic medication [Risperdal]. After several days, he was involuntarily committed to the mental hospital […]
Clinical Efficacy of Reboxetine in Major Depression by Alan F. Schatzberg, M.D. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 2000 61[suppl 10]:31–38. The past decade has witnessed the advent of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors [SSRIs] as first-line treatments for major depression. Still, there is considerable debate as to whether these agents are as effective or as potent as […]
Yes Virginia, there really was a Sigmund Freud. And in his 1900 book, The Interpretation of Dreams, he gave a sample dream of his own he called The Dream of Irma’s Injection which he interprets. And to the delight of students of all kinds over the last century, what Freud doesn’t include in that interpretation […]
A couple of months ago, when I first heard the testimony of AbbVie’s lawyer Neal Parker at the Brussels Conference on Data Transparency by the European Medicines Agency, I was horrified – an emotion I don’t often feel [a deal-breaker?…]. He’s a fast talker and is obviously emotionally engaged in his topic, and I couldn’t follow […]
Yesterday, I wrote about what we heard about the current goings-on with GSK and Paxil Study 329 [how that should work…, grown-up stuff…]. Today we get yet a new puzzle piece from David Healy – an FDA letter to GSK from 2003 approving Paxil for use in children and adolescents. Yeah, you heard that part […]
This letter from the Juriedini/GSK communications posted in Doshi’s article in the last post [how that should work…] is an example of the central difficulty in believing GSK’s commitment to the AllTrials Project they so publicly embrace. In fact, it is deliberately misleading. The comment, "was subjected to peer review on three occasions prior to […]
In this piece in the British Medical Journal, Peter Doshi summarizes a history that already fills volumes in a short article with supplementary documents. I’ve snipped out some highlights, but I’d suggest reading it in toto. One rarely gets such a full story in such a small place. I’ll jump straight to the punch line. […]
J&J Said to Reach $4 Billion Deal to Settle Hip Lawsuits Bloomberg By Jef Feeley & David Voreacos Nov 12, 2013 Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) will pay more than $4 billion to resolve thousands of lawsuits over its recalled hip implants in the largest settlement of U.S. legal claims for a medical device, three people […]