tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3125132926699584358.post6871443730528588445..comments2024-03-28T09:59:51.779-05:00Comments on Family Dysfunction and Mental Health Blog: Pharma Still Up to its Old Tricks David M. Allen M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06280912088483192599noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3125132926699584358.post-30052214681468522542014-02-11T12:20:52.759-06:002014-02-11T12:20:52.759-06:00Okay, so we agree there are an excessive number of...Okay, so we agree there are an excessive number of bad doctors in psychiatry (and elsewhere).<br /><br />And -- those bad doctors ARE injuring people with psychiatric drugs. Because you carefully monitor your patients, you head off injury. You cannot generalize from your experience.<br /><br />There are many, many doctors, including psychiatrists, who do NOT take people off psychiatric drugs when adverse effects occur. They either bully the patient into staying on the drug, often with increased dosage, or add other drugs to counter the adverse effects.<br /><br />Long-term, that inappropriate drug regimen causes serious neurological problems. (And about your colleagues knowing how to discontinue drugs -- don't get me started.)<br /><br />I'm not generalizing from my own opinion, I can show you 1,000 case reports following this pattern.<br /><br />As inanimate objects, prescription drugs don't injure people, doctors injure people. Emphasizing the dangers of psychiatric drugs 1) Redresses the exaggeration of benefit that is the legacy of that pharma influence; 2) May discourage people from asking for them; 3) As a very long shot, may educate doctors.<br /><br />(Still would like to hear about your personal experience with antidepressants.)Altostratahttp://survivingantidepressants.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3125132926699584358.post-69997040805903047442013-12-21T14:46:01.693-06:002013-12-21T14:46:01.693-06:00Why so many bad docs? Easy. 1. Thanks to my old...Why so many bad docs? Easy. 1. Thanks to my old buddy Ronnie Reagan, academic medicine has been taken over by pharma shills who then "teach." 2. Managed care insurance ratcheting down remuneration for psychotherapy. 3. Everybody these days wants a pill instead of dealing with messy family and psychological issueDavid M. Allen M.D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06280912088483192599noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3125132926699584358.post-83561869303477601682013-12-21T14:21:06.189-06:002013-12-21T14:21:06.189-06:00I think I would have seen all this harm you're...I think I would have seen all this harm you're talking about from antidepressants in 35 years of presribing them and following patients long term, if it was there. Again, if a patient does not tolerate a given drug, I take them off of it, and if they have trouble tapering, I taper more slowly, so no harm is caused there. There is NO valid evidence that the drugs, when tolerated, CAUSE or worsen depression long term. That's just nonsense. Of course I've seen tardive dyskinesia and metabolic syndrome with antipsychotics, so that's harmful, but so is being a street person or ending up in jail for minor crimes caused by delusions. It's always risk vs. benefit, and even those harms can be monitored for.<br />David M. Allen M.D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06280912088483192599noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3125132926699584358.post-56101112055302770702013-12-21T13:54:52.544-06:002013-12-21T13:54:52.544-06:00I didn't interpret his remarks in that video t...I didn't interpret his remarks in that video that way.<br /><br />Psychiatry certainly hasn't done any favors for its reputation by claiming antidepressants correct a chemical imbalance or drawing analogies to insulin.<br /><br />He's not throwing out psych drugs altogether. He says "these drugs should be given for as short a period as possible."<br /><br />I think his conclusion that harm from psychiatric drugs is much greater than psychiatry knows (or admits) is inescapable.<br /><br />He's extrapolated some rates of injury from available studies and statistics. A clinician's-eye view can't estimate this.<br /><br />Refuting the studies is essential, since they're what psychiatry uses to support its claims -- and clinical practice, by the way!<br /><br />As for MISUSE of psych drugs -- I presume you mean in treatment by clinicians -- you might argue a good doctor is good for patients and a bad doctor is bad. I can't disagree with that tautology. But why is it so easy to find bad doctors and so hard to find good doctors? <br /><br />I once had correspondence with a very nice Australian psychiatrist who was citing the STAR*D study as a basis for treatment recommendations. He agreed the study was invalid, yet defended referring to it: "It's all we've got." !!!!!!!!!!!!<br /><br />If that's what clinical practice is based on, clinical practice is in deep, deep trouble -- as so many patients know. What other medical specialty has a large, identifiable "anti-" group?<br /><br />(I especially appreciate Gøtzsche's observation that people often have a very hard time going off psychiatric drugs -- a point of tremendous denial among psychiatrists, yet borne out by hundreds of thousands of complaints all over the Web. I wonder how he found out about that.)<br /><br />Given the huge flaws in psychiatry, I'm sure there's room for more than one pharma critic perspective.<br /><br />Antidepressants saved your life? That sounds like it's an interesting story....<br /><br />(PS What don't I see you commenting on 1boringoldman.com?)Altostratahttp://survivingantidepressants.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3125132926699584358.post-68659181979741730322013-11-27T20:18:48.377-06:002013-11-27T20:18:48.377-06:00Alto
Ugh! I hate to disagree with you so vehement...Alto<br /><br />Ugh! I hate to disagree with you so vehemently but: The MISUSE of psych drugs is serious enough enough (in people that don't need them or in just snowing patients with sedation) without having to grossly exaggerate the dangers like Gotzche is doing.<br /><br />He just makes the REAL pharma critics like me suspect in the minds of the public, and interferes with us gaining a real audience. That makes him part of the problem, not the solution.<br /><br />How dare he use the already discredited serotonin model of how antidepressants work to argue that they do not work at all. He needs to spend some time in a well-run psychiatric hospital with some real, honest-to-goodness melancholic depressives before he goes spouting off. Maybe spend some time with some non-psychiatrist neuroscientists. Antidepressants saved my life, that's for DAMN sure. <br /><br />Looking at "studies" alone as he is actually doing, even if you pool them, is a fool's errand. He says so himself! The studies are easily manipulated.<br /><br />The exaggerations he makes sound exactly like the way NIDA exaggerates the dangers of pot and cocaine, thereby allowing a racist war on poor black people in the legal system.David M. Allen M.D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06280912088483192599noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3125132926699584358.post-49126527855419132932013-11-27T19:45:46.021-06:002013-11-27T19:45:46.021-06:00http://1boringoldman.com/index.php/2013/11/25/a-ma...http://1boringoldman.com/index.php/2013/11/25/a-major-force/<br /><br />I call psychiatry the drug industry’s paradise.”<br />-- Peter Gøtzsche, Director of The Nordic Cochrane CentreAltostratahttp://survivingantidepressants.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3125132926699584358.post-82586186070330206672013-11-26T13:05:44.439-06:002013-11-26T13:05:44.439-06:00The problems with pharma research are not restrict...The problems with pharma research are not restricted to psychiatric drugs, but the last 30 years of psychiatric research has been fairly thoroughly undermined, more so than in other specialties.Altostratahttp://survivingantidepressants.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3125132926699584358.post-26547769149254227262013-11-22T17:57:34.372-06:002013-11-22T17:57:34.372-06:00On the other hand, trials with woefully low amount...On the other hand, trials with woefully low amount of partcipants, not blind etc etc are routinely published. <br /><br />André Pampelnoreply@blogger.com