Myth 1: Antidepressants Are More Effective than Placebos
Myth 2: If the First Antidepressant Fails, Another Antidepressant Will Likely Succeed
Myth 3: Electroconvulsive Treatment (ECT) is an Effective Last Resort
Myth 4: Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is the Best Psychotherapy for Depression
Myth 5: No Treatment for Depression Works
A lawsuit that alleges Wyeth executives told a series of lies about the antidepressant Pristiq — suggesting that it was a good treatment for post-menopause hot-flashes when they were sitting on study data showing a risk of heart and liver problems — gives new guidance to management on what counts as a false or misleading disclosure to investors.
In the case, the judge ruled that front-loading your investor presentations with a bunch of boilerplate language about “safe-harbor” predictions and “forward-looking statements” that ought to be treated with caution does not allow you to stay silent about negative data that you know will affect the fortunes of your company. (The order was reaffirmed just before Thanksgiving.)
A psychiatrist on the payroll of GlaxoSmithKline has been sentenced to 13 months in prison after pleading guilty to committing research fraud in trials of the company’s antidepressant Paxil on children. GlaxoSmithKline, manufacturer of Paxil, paid Palazzo $5,000 for every child she enrolled in the study. The case’s significance goes beyond simple research fraud, as Glaxo is now defending itself against charges that for 15 years it deliberately concealed evidence that Paxil increases the risk of suicide in children. Maria Carmen Palazzo is already serving a sentence of 87 months for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid.
Darkness hung over Charleston Harbor as Matthew Steubing parked his Ford pickup truck on the aging bridge and left a note on the seat beside his Bible. He put on a life jacket and began to climb — up, up, into the span’s superstructure. Then, he jumped.
His parents were waiting for Matthew to arrive home in Winchester, Va., when they received the news on July 18, 2003. Their 18-year-old son plunged more than 160 feet from the Silas Pearman Bridge before slamming into the Cooper River. He was gone. “Our world blew apart,” his mother, Celeste Steubing, said. “We couldn’t imagine this happening because this wasn’t Matthew. … It made no sense.” Matthew, the youngest of six children, had been a vibrant kid, happy and full of life. But after a rough patch in his senior year of high school left him feeling down, a psychologist suggested he would benefit from the antidepressant drug Lexapro. He soon became withdrawn and anxious, his parents recalled during a recent visit to Charleston. Matthew committed suicide just nine weeks after starting on the drug. Only later did his family learn that antidepressants carry a heightened risk of suicide in children, the Steubings said. The Steubings have made it their mission to warn other parents about the hidden dangers of psychiatric drugs. To that end, Celeste Steubing was featured in the recently released documentary, “Dead Wrong,” produced by the Los Angeles-based Citizens Commission on Human Rights.
by Evelyn Pringle—The founders of Ablechild, Patricia Weathers and Sheila Matthews, have earned the title of “Unsung Heroes,” as both pioneers and warriors for over a decade, in the battle to protect children from the Psychopharmaceutical Industry.