Quote:
Originally Posted by Dion
There was a real good study that escapes my mind where in 1994 there were 4 SSRI drugs that were the top 4 in adverse side effects as reported by FDA. The article also focused on the ways drug companies do thier trials and how the results are manipulated to get favourable results. It also doesn't help that drug companies are the ones paying to have these trials done. If you want to selected to do another trail your results better be positive.
Then you have the extensive advertising drug companies do on TV in the States in regards to anitdepressents. Someone sees thier ads and rushes off to thier GP to get a perscription. Nothing like promoting a drug to better the bottom line.
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Yeah the pharmaceutical drug business is one of the biggest in the world. Just like with Tobacco companies and their "studies" earlier in the 20th century, drug companies will try and minimize the profile of bad side-effects. The truth comes out eventually but you could be one of the those unfortunates who was prescribed a deadly or harmful drug whose effects weren't completely disclosed or accurately reported. There are billions of dollars of profit at stake. You'd have to be naive to think that money isn't part of equation here. If they've spent millions developing a new drug do you think they'll scrap it if they find some serious side effects?
Some of the most worrying reports are those about drugs not being directly compared with placebos. It is sad to think that some are taking a very powerful drug with many bad effects when they might have recovered just as easily without it.
A book I'd recommend is Robert Whitaker. 2002. Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill. Perseus Publishing. (guess you know what angle it will be coming from
I'm going to list a lot of links. Some are very anti-drug and anti-psychiatry but its good to get the story from all sides especially if you or family or friends are taking medication or undergoing treatment
Lots of interesting links on this page
http://www.narpa.org/
More info about SSRI's and their danger
http://www.healyprozac.com/
Talking about the diagnoses and the arbitrariness
http://www.psychdiagnosis.net/default.htm
Antipsychiatry
http://antipsychiatry.org/
Remembering the horrors of lobotomys
http://www.psychosurgery.org/
Coalition against Psychiatric Assault
http://capa.oise.utoronto.ca/Home.html
Psychiatric Rights
http://psychrights.org/index.htm
International Network Toward Alternatives and Recovery
http://intar.org/
http://www.mindfreedom.org/
Psychiatric "Survivors" Archives of Toronto
http://www.psychiatricsurvivorarchives.com/
Canadian Mental Health Commission
http://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca...s/default.aspx
Canadian Mental Health Association
http://www.cmha.ca/bins/index.asp
Mad Pride
http://www.ctono.freeserve.co.uk/
Psychiatric Drug Facts
http://www.breggin.com/
Website from a now deceased guy who spearheaded much of the anti-psychiatry movement
http://www.szasz.com/