Palpitations Over Pills for Kids

 by Tara Parker-Pope
From the Well Blog

"Reports filed with the Internal Revenue Service and provided by the A.A.P. show that the academy has received contributions from several companies with ties to statins, including $433,000 from Merck, $835,250 from Abbott Laboratories’ Ross Product Division and $216,000 from the Bristol-Myers Squibb company Mead Johnson Nutritionals. The biggest statin maker, Pfizer, is not listed as a contributor. The A.A.P. reported a total of $81 million in revenue in 2007."

Click here to read full article at www.well.blogs.nytimes.com

Ben Goldacre: What doctors don't know about the drugs they prescribe

When a new drug gets tested, the results of the trials should be published for the rest of the medical world -- except much of the time, negative or inconclusive findings go unreported, leaving doctors and researchers in the dark. In this impassioned talk, Ben Goldacre explains why these unreported instances of negative data are especially misleading and dangerous.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more.

www.ted.com

Half of US clinical trials go unpublished

Results are reported more thoroughly in government database than in journals.
by Nicola Jones
03 December 2013

The results of clinical trials are going unpublished as much as half the time, and those that are published omit some key details, a study has found. 

US law requires the results of medical research for drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to be submitted to a database called ClinicalTrials.gov. Results, including adverse effects, have been made public there since 2008. Researchers who do not post results within a year of trial completion risk losing grants and can be fined as much as US$10,000 per day. But the database was never meant to replace journal publications, which often contain longer descriptions of methods and results and are the basis for big reviews of research on a given drug.

In an analysis of 600 trials picked at random from the database, Agnes Dechartres, an epidemiologist at Paris Descartes University, and her colleagues have now found that only 50% had made their way into print. “Non-publication is a crucial problem for all stakeholders, from patients to health policy-makers,” says Dechartres. For one thing, she says, failure to publish results in journals breeches the implied contract with patients who participated in the trials. “If results are not [fully] available, we can consider that research wasted,” she says.

Click here to for full article on www.nature.com

“Pay-to-Play” Meetings Shed Light on FDA’s Role in Prescription Abuse Epidemic

Originally published by Alliance for Natural Health USA

October 22, 2013

Drug companies paid up to $25,000 to influence FDA policy—the latest in a decades-long FDA/Big Pharma scandal. 

What class of drugs:

• causes more deaths a year than heroin and cocaine combined;
• accounts for two-thirds of drug overdose fatalities;
• killed 16,000 Americans in 2010 alone;
• adds $72.5 billion a year to the cost of US healthcare from misuse; and
• according to the CDC, has directly contributed to a sharp rise in our country’s suicide rate?

 
We’ll give you a hint: they’re FDA-approved.

click here to continue reading on www.anh-usa.org...

In Eyes, a Clock Calibrated by Wavelengths of Light

"Researchers like Dr. Brainard hope the science may lead to a new generation of lights and screens designed with wavelengths that adjust according to the hour of the day."

click here to read full article on nytimes.com 

Otto Steininger

 

Prescription-Drug-Induced Violence Medicine's Best Kept Secret?

Data Based Medicine Americas Ltd. announces free online tool to show possible links between prescription drugs and violence.

Toronto, Canada (PRWEB) November 12, 2012
by David Carmichael
 

RxISK.org, the first free independent website for researching and reporting prescription drug side effects, has added a Violence Zone to demonstrate and collect data on the links between prescription drugs and violent thoughts and behavior — from mild to suicidal or homicidal.

This article first appeared on http://www.prweb.com, click here for full article.

Attention Disorder or Not, Pills to Help in School

By ALAN SCHWARZ

Published: October 9, 2012

CANTON, Ga. — When Dr. Michael Anderson hears about his low-income patients struggling in elementary school, he usually gives them a taste of some powerful medicine: Adderall.

The pills boost focus and impulse control in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Although A.D.H.D is the diagnosis Dr. Anderson makes, he calls the disorder “made up” and “an excuse” to prescribe the pills to treat what he considers the children’s true ill — poor academic performance in inadequate schools.

“I don’t have a whole lot of choice,” said Dr. Anderson, a pediatrician for many poor families in Cherokee County, north of Atlanta. “We’ve decided as a society that it’s too expensive to modify the kid’s environment. So we have to modify the kid.”
 click to continue reading

CES in the Treatment of Depression

Part 1 of this two-part series reviews diagnoses, treatment modalities, and compares CES efficacy with that of the most popular pharmaceutical treatments for depression.

 By Daniel L. Kirsch, PhD, DAAPM, FAIS and Marshall F. Gilula, MD

According to NIH findings, one in 20 American adults experience major depression in a given year.¹ The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance report that 16 million people suffer from depression annually, with twice as many women afflicted as men. They estimate that as many as 25% of women suffer from depression serious enough to require treatment at least once in their lifetime.²The National Alliance on Mental Illness indicates that “major depression is the leading cause of disability in the United States and many other developed countries, and affects 15 million American adults or about 5 to 8% of the adult population in a given year.”³

Many other comorbid disabilities—such as cardiovascular events—can accompany depression. Depression may also result in chronically elevated levels of stress hormones, such as cortisol and epinephrine, and thus represents a condition that diverts metabolism away from tissue repair when needed for healing. Feelings of helplessness or of being out of control of one’s life also impair the immune system, increasing susceptibility to a wide spectrum of pathologies from infections to cancer. The fact that women are twice as likely as men to develop depression is also in accord with the finding that, in U.S. society, it is more likely for women to feel out of control of their lives.⁴

Aside from the general population, chronic pain patients almost invariable suffer depression as a direct result of their pain and accompanying disability. Almost any chronic illness, especially ones with no clearly effective treatment, have a high incidence of comorbid depression. Based on these descriptions of the physical manifestations of depression, it is clear that it can have a devastating effect in the pain patient and others with chronic diseases.

While depression is a common term for describing how one feels, the technical psychiatric definition goes beyond just a feeling of sadness. For such a commonly-used term, it behooves us to scrutinize some technical definitions and terms. Depression is a “mental state characterized by feelings of sadness, loneliness, despair, low self-esteem, and self-reproach; accompanying signs include psychomotor retardation or, at times, agitation, withdrawal from interpersonal contact, and vegetative symptoms such as insomnia and anorexia. The term refers to either a mood that is so characterized or a mood disorder.”⁵

Definitions

Mood disorder is now the preferred term in both the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 10th revision of International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) and the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) fourth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). Official mood disorder categories in current use include bipolar disorders (with manic or hypomanic, depressive, or mixed episodes) and major depressive disorders and their respective attenuated variants known as cyclothymic and dysthymic disorders.⁶ Many of the older terms such as “atypical depression,” “endogenous depression,” and “involutional melancholia” are included within major depressive disorders. The older “depressive neurosis” has been replaced and absorbed by dysthymic disorder.

Table 1 summarizes the DSM-IV diagnoses that involve depression.⁷ The specific psychiatric criteria for a Major Depressive Disorder, listed on pages 168-9 of the DSM-IV-TR, require that “five (or more) of the following symptoms have been present during the same 2-week period and represent a change from previous functioning. At least one of the symptoms is either depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure and the symptoms are not obviously secondary to a general medical condition or “mood-incongruent delusions or hallucinations.” The symptoms are:

1. . Depressed mood most of the day, nearly daily, and/or irritable mood in children and adolescents.
2. Markedly diminished interest or pleasure in most activities.
3. Significant weight loss when not dieting—or weight gain.
4. Insomnia or hypersomnia nearly every day.
5. Psychomotor agitation or retardation.
6. Fatigue or loss of energy.
7. Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt.
8. Diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness.
9. Recurrent thoughts of death beyond a fear of dying, recurrent suicidal ideation, or a suicide attempt or specific plan.

Treatment Protocols

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) describes depression as a serious medical condition that affects thoughts, feelings, and the ability to function.¹ Depression is labeled a treatable disorder of the brain, with 80% of patients responding to treatment. The NIH, as well as other researchers, declare depression to be mainly a biochemical problem and, therefore, the first line of treatment should be psychopharmaceutical intervention, possibly accompanied by psychotherapy, counseling, exercise, or other wellness techniques. In the following sections, we will focus on three basic modalities in the treatment of depression: psychoanalysis-related, pharmaceutical, and micro-current cranial electrotherapy stimulation

 click here to continue reading pages 2-4 

Use of Alpha-Stim at NICoE

National Intrepid Center of Exellence (NICoE) talks about some of the modalities utilized there. Cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES) and microcurrent electrical therapy (MET) are mentioned under complementary medicine.

http://www.nicoe.capmed.mil/Shared%20Documents/CAM_Fact%20Sheet_FINAL_06%2018%2012.pdf

Are We Too Shallow About Drugs to Truly Help Vets With PTSD?

by Kevin Bell

Researcher, Army Veteran

Seven months ago, PFC Sonny Mazon opened my eyes to the tragic link between depression, drugs, incarceration, and suicide in the military community.

I had been so naïve. Of course, during the deployment many of us swapped stories of comrades abusing prescription drugs like Ambien while overseas, and I had a vague sense that this would get worse when my platoon returned home in 2009. Even so, I never expected that almost 2 years after I left the Army I would still be receiving tragic news about my soldiers, their families, and the ending that awaits those who never get the help they need.

click here to continue reading on the Huffington Post site...

No Exit?

 We learned last year from a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey that more than 10% of Americans are taking anti-depressants.  This data would not be difficult to swallow if these drugs were proven to be effective and are prescribed responsibly by heath care practitioners, but they are not. Instead it is widely known that anti-depressants are not effective for mild to moderate depression. 

Treating Depression: Is there a placebo effect?

Harvard scientist Dr. Irving Kirsch (no relation to Dr. Daniel Kirsch of EPI) says the drugs used to treat depression are effective, but for many, it's not the active ingredient that's making people feel better. It's the placebo effect. Irving Kirsch is Associate Director of the Program in Placebo Studies and a lecturer in medicine at the Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is also a professor of psychology at Plymouth University in the United Kingdom, and professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Hull, United Kingdom, and the University of Connecticut in the United States. Kirsch is noted for his research on placebo effects, antidepressants, expectancy, and hypnosis. He is the originator of response expectancy theory, and his analyses of clinical trials of antidepressants have influenced official treatment guidelines in the United Kingdom.