Archive for September, 2009

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Push to pathologize Internet use as a ‘mental disorder’ for inclusion in psychiatry’s billing bible-the DSM

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Christie Nicholson
Scientific American
September 29, 2009

A quiet restaurant. Good wine. An animated conversation. Then, mid-sentence, you catch him steal a quick sideways downward glance at his BlackBerry. And the nickname “CrackBerry” comes to mind. You might think: for some, the Internet is an addiction.

Well, as psychology experts ramp up to publish the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a debate has begun on whether to include Internet addiction in the next big book of mental illness. This month the Canadian Medical Association Journal published an article weighing both sides.

Kimberly Young, director of The Center for Internet Addiction, says that while it might not be a well-defined illness, those who spend excessive amounts of time online suffer the same issues as other addicts, including lost jobs, broken marriages, or financial problems. Young says if it’s the cause of major issues in your life, then you have a problem.

Read entire article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=internet-addiction-09-09-29

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How Pharma Can Skew Drug Trial Results: If patients taking a drug die, study may include only those that survived

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

Tom Spears
CanWest News Service
September 29, 2009

OTTAWA – Doctors and patients may not get the full story on some prescription drugs because companies sidestep rules and hide test results, according to researchers in Canada, France and Britain.

Anyone doing a clinical trial of a drug is supposed to announce publicly that the trial is under way and describe its goals. But David Moher of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute said many tests are conducted without this disclosure.

This allows scientists, or the drug companies who pay for the work, to release good results but quietly cancel anything that looks bad for their product.

“Selective outcome [result] reporting is prevalent,” Dr. Moher’s study concluded.

Read entire article: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/Drug+firms+hiding+test+results+Study/2042678/story.html

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The Huffington Post: Stopping the Psychiatric Abuse of Children by psychiatrist Peter Breggin

Monday, September 28th, 2009

Millions of our children are being labeled with false and stigmatizing psychiatric diagnoses. Then their brains are being blunted and disabled by psychiatric drugs.

Want to find a way to do something about the plight of our children at the hands of drug companies and misguided mental health professionals? Want to learn more about what our children really need from us?

In less than two weeks, you can attend the annual meeting of the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology at the Renaissance Syracuse Hotel. The two-day conference takes place on Friday and Saturday, October 9-10, 2009 in Syracuse, New York. It features international experts on the adverse of effects of psychiatric drugs and better ways of helping children and families.

Read entire article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-peter-breggin/conference-on-stopping-th_b_301272.html

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New Study: Antidepressants Linked to Birth Defects

Monday, September 28th, 2009

Salynn Boyles
WebMD Health News
September 24, 2009

New research adds to the evidence that babies born to women who take antidepressants  during pregnancy have a small increased risk for a specific heart defect.

The Danish study also shows that the risk is greatest when moms-to-be take more than one selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant or switch SSRIs early in pregnancy.

SSRIs such as Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa and Lexapro are the most widely prescribed drugs for depression; millions of women take them during pregnancy.

The new study shows the overall risk for congenital heart problems associated with SSRI to be quite low.

But babies born to women who had filled prescriptions for more than one SSRI had a fourfold increase in septal heart defects — a malformation of the wall that divides the left and right sides of the heart.

Read entire article: http://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20090924/antidepressants-linked-to-birth-defect

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Eli Lilly’ s confidential settlement with seven states over its antipsychotic drug Zyprexa

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Bob Van Voris, Margaret Cronin Fisk and Jef Feeley
Bloomberg.com
September 21, 2009

Eli Lilly & Co. agreed to settle, on confidential terms, lawsuits filed by seven states alleging the company improperly marketed its antipsychotic drug Zyprexa, a court-appointed official said.

“All of the states have essentially settled for the same” non-monetary arrangements, said Michael Rozen, special master appointed by the court to help settlement negotiations. The money terms, which weren’t disclosed, “have fallen roughly in line,” he said at a hearing today in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

Lawyers told U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein, who is overseeing the cases, that finishing the settlements may be delayed while the parties determine how much money the U.S. government plans to claim in compensation for federal dollars spent on Zyprexa through state Medicaid programs.

If completed and approved in court, the settlements would leave four suits filed by states pending against Lilly.

Read entire article: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aUgLzDmvzVK0

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New allegations against Anna Nicole Smith’s psychiatrist: Sexual relationship with patient & prescribing deadly drugs

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Emily Freedman
ABC News
September 22, 2009

The doctors of the late Anna Nicole Smith over-prescribed her a litany of medications that eventually led to her death and crossed boundaries to indulge in “unprofessional” relationships with their patient, recently unsealed affidavits obtained by ABC News allege.

The documents submitted to a Los Angeles judge in support of search warrants in the case suggest that Smith’s psychiatrist Khristine Eroshevich and internist Sandeep Kapoor had relationships “that appeared sexual in nature” with the model, who was found dead in a Florida hotel room in April 2007. The medical examiner determined that 39-year-old Smith died after an accidental drug overdose  involving nine different medications or an “acute combined drug intoxication.”

According to the affidavits, photographs were discovered in the investigation depicting Smith naked with Eroschevich in a bathtub in “intimate embraces” that “constitute unprofessional behavior.”

Read entire story: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/sexual-drug-allegations-anna-nicole-smith-doctors/story?id=8641602

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Anna Nicole Smith’s psychiatrist prescribed “pharmaceutical suicide” according to court records

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Vicki Hyman
The Star Ledger
September 22, 2009

Anna Nicole Smith’s psychiatrist Khristine Eroshevich prescribed the equivalent of “pharmaceutical suicide” in the days after the death of her son, according to court records obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

On at least three occasions, pharmacists refused to fill drug orders prescribed by Eroshevich and Smith’s internist Sandeep Kapoor, who are each facing several counts of illegally prescribing controlled substances to the late model and obtaining opiate prescriptions by fraud.

Five days after the death of Smith’s son, Daniel, (and eight days after Smith gave birth to her daughter Dannielynn, Eroshevich tried to prescribe two sedatives, 300 tablets of methadone, a muscle relaxer, an anti-inflammatory drug and 4 bottles of a painkiller called “hospital heroin.”

“They are going to kill her with this,” one of the pharmacists told himself at the time.

Read entire article: http://www.nj.com/entertainment/celebrities/index.ssf/2009/09/khristine_eroshevich_prescribe.html

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Physicians for Human Rights exposes shameful role of doctors/psychologists in CIA’s torture interrogations

Monday, September 21st, 2009

Nat Hentoff
Times and Democrat
September 21, 2009

The fearlessly independent Physicians for Human Rights — founded in 1986 and sharer of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 — has once again exposed the shameful role of doctors and psychologists throughout the CIA’s torture interrogations, banned by the international Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as well as in the Geneva Conventions and our own statues.

Despite all the attention and furor when the former CIA Inspector General’s 2004 report was finally released through an ACLU lawsuit — to the rage of objectors Dick Cheney and CIA Director Leon Panetta — the continuing debate has yet to focus on, and deal with, the Physicians for Human Rights Aug. 31 report:

“Aiding Torture: Health Professionals’ Ethics and Human Rights Violations Demonstrated in the May 2004 Inspector General’s Report” — with additional incriminating details that “CIA Health Professionals’ Role in Torture Worse Than Previously Known.”

The startling indictment is that “health professionals were involved at every stage in the development, implementation and legitimization of this torture program.” They were as disgracefully complicit as John Yoo and the other Justice Department lawyers who provided torturously manipulated “legal” cover to the CIA and its bosses in the Defense department and the Oval Office.

Read entire article: http://www.timesanddemocrat.com/articles/2009/09/21/opinion/doc4ab472d350295030200859.txt

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Shrinks for sale: Psychiatrist makes $22,500 in 3 months doing “educational” drug speeches for Eli Lilly

Monday, September 21st, 2009

Bob LaMendola
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
September 19, 2009

Boca Raton psychiatrist Donna Holland spent a day this month in San Antonio talking to doctors about the hyperactivity drug Strattera for manufacturer Eli Lilly and Co.

Her pay for that 45-minute speech: $1,500 plus expenses.

She’s one of 24 doctors in Broward and Palm Beach counties who were paid a total of $200,000 in speaking fees from Lilly in the first three months of 2009. Payments made to 3,400 doctors nationwide were disclosed as part of a settlement with the federal government over the company’s illegal marketing practices.

The list casts a spotlight on a widespread, legal but controversial practice of drug and medical companies paying doctors to give speeches about products to other doctors. Critics, including health experts, members of Congress and some doctors, say the speakers may change the drugs they prescribe based on who’s paying them, and the doctors in the audience are exposed to a sales pitch disguised as teaching.

Read entire article: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-doctor-drugmoney-092009,0,2156852.story

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In the wake of U.S. Senator Charles Grassley investigations, Medical Editors Push for Ghostwriting Crackdown

Friday, September 18th, 2009

Natasha Singer and Duff Wilson
The New York Times
September 17, 2009

The scientific integrity of medical research has been clouded in recent years by articles that were drafted by drug company-sponsored ghostwriters and then passed off as the work of independent academic authors.

Yet the leading medical journals have continued to rely largely on an honor system of disclosure to detect such potential bias, asking authors to voluntarily report any industry ties or contributors to their manuscripts.

But now, in light of recently released evidence that some drug makers have gone to great lengths to turn scientific articles into marketing vehicles for their products, some influential medical editors are cracking down on industry-financed ghostwriting. And they are getting help from some members of Congress.

Read entire article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/business/18ghost.html?_r=1&hp

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