Guest guest Posted March 26, 2004 Report Share Posted March 26, 2004 Fri, 26 Mar 2004 01:33:00 -0500 WC Douglass The depressing truth Daily Dose March 26, 2004 ************************************************************** Burden of proof Be glad our court system isn't run by the same standards that the FDA requires of the drug industry. Here's what I mean: Unlike in court, where everyone involved is entitled to ALL the evidence (theoretically, anyway) in any given case - and that evidence becomes part of the public record after a case is settled - the pharmaceuticals industry isn't legally required to show doctors, patients, or the public at large ANY unfavorable findings research may reveal about their patented poisons. Yes, you read that right: Even though a medication may strike out time and again in clinical trials, we typically only hear about the ones in which the drug produced a clearly favorable result. And in no segment of the drug market do these types of statistical shenanigans happen more frequently (or egregiously) than in the antidepressant realm. I've written about this before (Daily Dose, 4/4/2003), but if you haven't been with me that long, here's what I said back then: " Before a drug can be approved by the FDA, its maker is required to submit two trials that show clearly positive effects... the manufacturers of Prozac needed five separate trials to collect a pair with positive clinical results. And for the makers of Paxil and Zoloft, it took EVEN MORE. " Think about this absurdity for a minute. Given a large enough pool of double blind, placebo-controlled drug trials, the law of averages dictates that at least a few are likely to yield findings that support the use of the study's medication. But even if the VAST MAJORITY of these trials are inconclusive - or find that the placebo group is the more effective - the only ones you (or the FDA) may ever find out about are the few flattering ones used as the basis for the drug's approval. What's worse, the only studies on these drugs most doctors are likely to see are the ones published in the medical journal articles - some of which are ghostwritten by professional " spin doctors " posing as real MDs (Daily Dose, 9/19/2003). And guess which studies are likely to make the news in these venues... You guessed it: The dramatic, drug-friendly ones. Why is this so important that it needs to be reiterated now? Because this kind of shameless deception on the part of the drug manufacturers isn't just robbing people of their hope for cures (and their money), it's actually KILLING THEM. Keep reading... ************************************************************** To start receiving your own copy of the Daily Dose, visit: http://www.realhealthnews.com/dailydose/freecopy.html Or forward this e-mail to a friend so they can sign-up to receive their own copy of the Daily Dose. ************************************************************** FDA-sanctioned manslaughter? Again, you've heard me talk at great length about the antidepressant/suicide link (Daily Dose, 12/26 and 12/30/2003) in the past, but there's a more ominous component to this correlation that I've never mentioned before - and it relates directly to the " selective reporting " topic I discussed above... According to a recent Washington Post online article, makers of several of the most popular " happy pills " have refused to divulge any details about the bulk of the antidepressant trials they've conducted on children. As I've already explained, hiding negative study results is par for the course in the drug biz. But in this case, such conduct clearly denies doctors and parents the facts they need to make informed decisions about children's mental health. Why is this so important all of a sudden? Because of the abundance of evidence suggesting that taking antidepressant drugs might cause kids to KILL THEMSELVES. Not break out in a rash, gain a few pounds or develop sleeping problems - but take their own lives. This tragic correlation has been speculated about before, as several instances of seemingly antidepressant-related suicide have occurred in recent years. In one 2004 trial for the antidepressant duloxetine, a 19- year-old female test subject hanged herself in the drug company's research lab at Indiana University. And here's the kicker: She WASN'T EVEN DEPRESSED; she was just a perfectly healthy, random participant in the trial. Not surprisingly, the incident prompted 19 participants and study volunteers to quit the test in fear for their own lives. The bottom line is this: As long as drug companies are free to submit for review and publication only that research which is flattering to their patented medications, we'll never really know the truth about what these chemicals are doing to us - or NOT doing to us (like healing us). By looking the other way and allowing pharmaceuticals makers to keep negative findings about drugs under wraps, the FDA becomes complicit in every adverse occurrence that happens because of these drugs - including deaths. This is manslaughter, in my eyes. I say it's high time the FDA changed its rules to require drug companies to submit ALL research related to ANY drug, and to make these studies a matter of public record... Then maybe we'd know what we're really risking every time we pop a prescription pill. Leading you AWAY from the slaughter, William Campbell Douglass II, MD ************************************************************** Copyright ©1997-2004 by www.realhealthnews.com, L.L.C. The Daily Dose may not be posted on commercial sites without written permission. ************************************************************** Before you hit reply to send us a question or request, please visit here http://www.realhealthnews.com/questions.shtml ************************************************************** If you'd like to participate in the Dr. Douglass' Real Health Breakthroughs Forum, search past e-letters and products or you're a Dr. Douglass' Real Health Breakthroughs r and would like to search past articles, visit http://www.realhealthnews.com ************************************************************** Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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