Posts Tagged ‘screening’

Grassley Probes WebMd’s Ties To Eli Lilly for running TV ad encouraging depression screening—sponsored by Eli Lilly

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

Pharmalot
By Ed Silverman
February 19, 2010

Grassley, who is the ranking Republican on the US Senate Finance Committee, is investigating the relationship between WebMD and drugmakers after learning the web site is running a TV ad that encourage people to take a depression-screening test sponsored by Eli Lilly, which sells Cymbalta.

So he wants WebMD, which lots of folks visit for medical info, to disclose its ties to the industry, in general, because the Lilly sponsorship raises questions about WebMD’s “independence,” according to this Feb. 18 letter to WebMD exec Wayne Gattinella. The ad encourages people to visit WebMD’s site to take a depression-screening test.

Read entire article:  http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/02/grassley-probes-webmd-ties-to-eli-lilly/

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Australia’s $80 billion plan to screen pregnant women mirrors U.S. Mothers Act: Bogus screenings produce false positives

Monday, September 7th, 2009

Michael Woodhead
6minutes.com.au
September 7, 2009

Researchers have sounded a note of caution about the government’s $80 million scheme to introduce routine screening for depression for all pregnant women.

Writing in the MJA (191: 276-79 ) today, researchers from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne warn that the screening tools are imperfect and there is a risk of focusing too much on providing interventions such as antidepressants and CBT rather than exploring broader psychosocial issues such as partner violence, co-morbid health problems and housing.

The National Perinatal Depression Plan announced in the recent budget  proposes to introduce routine screening during pregnancy and after birth. But the researchers say there is little evidence to support such interventions, with screening tools producing high rates of false positives and negatives for depression.

They say screening has potential to do harm, with many women being upset at being labeled as having a mental health problem and reluctant to discuss mental health issues with antenatal care providers.

Read entire article: http://www.6minutes.com.au/articles/z1/view.asp?id=497263

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The Mothers Act Disease Mongering Campaign – Part V

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

Evelyn Pringle
NaturalNews.com
August 28, 2009

In the title of a paper in the May, 2009, Journal of Affective Disorders, Stephen Matthey, of the University of Sydney Infant, Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service Research Unit in Australia, asks, “Are we overpathologising motherhood?”

The paper was critical of self-report screening measures such as the Edinburgh Depression Scale for overestimating the rate of psychiatric disorders in motherhood. “The properties of the Edinburgh Scale show that around 50% of women scoring high are not in fact depressed,” the paper’s abstract reports.

The paper was further critical of the high percentage of women being screened as ‘at-risk’. Classifying women to be ‘at-risk’ based upon “the presence of a single risk factor is questionable given that the majority of women with risks do not become depressed, and also the rate of women reported to have at least one risk (up to 88%) is so high as to negate the usefulness of this concept,” the abstract warns.

Matthey also questioned the use of the diagnostic criteria for depression in the DSM IV, such as weight loss, sleep problems and fatigue, which could easily be attributed to new parenthood rather than depression.

Read entire article: http://www.naturalnews.com/026933_pregnancy_depression_SSRI.html

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