Has The Science Been Lost in Big Pharma?

Over the last year I wrote to several leading science journalists and scientists, one of whom was lamenting the loss of two major drug companies to neuroscience. They didn't want to develop drugs for the brain any more, and while I sighed with relief, others were calling it a tragic loss to brain medicine. In my letters I explained the following: 1) We don't yet fully understand the normal brain and how it functions. 2) We don't yet know what causes schizophrenia and 3) we prescribe expensive and risky drugs, based on what exactly? The science just isn't there to justify millions of presciptions, to millions of people across dozens of different drugs. But not only are we taking them in large quatities, we are also forced or intimidated by the health authorities to take them.

One of the people I wrote to was Ben Goldacre, a journalist and author, who has recently published his new book, Bad Pharma, published by The Fourth Estate. Even though he never replied to me, I read an excerpt from his book on the Guardian website and in it he describes an industry that has lost all sense of scientific rigour, lies to and manipulates doctors, withholds vital data, and issues drugs that are not only completely useless, but also cause unpleasant and dangerous side effects. The drug companies are not held to account by the regulators and they are deliberately using ineffective regulations to push drugs that have very iffy efficacy data. Goldacre says that 'Because researchers are free to bury any result they please, patients are exposed to harm on a staggering scale throughout the whole of medicine. Doctors can have no idea about the true effects of the treatments they give.' This admission is just unbelievable. The trouble is though, governments and politicians cannot move against big pharma to sort this out, because of lobbyists, who will hound and buy off politicians, with offers to fund campaigns. In America if the government moved to tighten regulations, the right would block any major restrictions against dodgy drugs. The reason for this is that because a lot of drugs are implicated in this scandal, the pharmaceutical industry would be threatened with almost total collaspe. Goldacre claims that so many drugs are ineffective, with masses of withheld data, held back by drug companies, that every type of illness would be effected, from anti-depressives to statins.

Also, Goldacre explains about one scientific journal who published an article about the scandal. The journal Jama, explained the situation and the regulator in Denmark, Lif, went on the offensive and attempted to refer the authors to the Danish Committee on Scientific Dishonesty. They presented zero scientific evidence that the authors had been dishonest, but the investigation was conducted any way, eventually being dropped after a couple of months. This is what doctors can expect who don't tow the line of a system that has lost all perspective about scientific rigour in medicine. And in the meantime we all suffer.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/sep/21/drugs-industry-scandal-ben-goldacre

Books Selling Well.

My book The Vast and Gruesome Clutch of OUr Law, seems to be shifting copies, in the few bookshops who have taken it. After all these years something is happening at last. I have offered the book for sale on the UK Amazon site (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0954969170/), and the US site, using Createspace an Amazon service: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0954969170/

The Vast and Gruesome Clutch of Our Law is also available to you at http://www.vagabond-unlimited.co.uk, where you can check artwork, satirical cartoons, and my animated film, which is still seeking funding.

Super Red, which I think is a cool little production, is also available here at the UK Amazon site: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0954969189/ and here in the US, also using Createspace: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0954969189/ .

Kindle versions are also available.

My other sites worth a recce:

http://www.the-debt-pack.co.uk
http://www.futuretowns.org.uk

Changes to Working Practices

It seems that in two key areas there are positive signs that the mental health system is recognising it needs to do better. In my local NHS Trust at least, doctors are now required to give patients a run down of side effects of the drugs they are prescribing. I recently saw my doctor, and was prescribed a new drug. She got out the BNF book (the British National Formulary - the reference book for drugs), and ran off a very long list of known side effects. It read like a very horrific medical accident, but it was important to do this. However, it also means that patients can't claim they didn't know about the drugs side effects before agreeing to take it. At that point of desperation, when a patient feels they need something to help them, who is going to turn it down based on side effects? However, I have in the past turned down medication because of unnecessarily high risk, due to side effects. But many patients won't.

Secondly there are plans a-foot to allow advocates to come in with patients when seeing a doctor, so that patients can ensure that they get good advice, and another perspective to their care, other than their doctors. There is a new law going through parliament (which I myself haven't had a chance to read yet), but you can take a look at here:  http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2012-13/mentalhealthdiscriminationno2.html. This law also states that people who have been sectioned for longer than six months, cannot be barred from becoming MP's and company directors.

61% of All Deaths in Custordy Are Mentally Ill.

"There were 3,628 deaths in mental health detention (501 self-inflicted) between 2000 and 2010, accounting for 61% of all deaths in state custody. The proportion of deaths recorded from "natural causes" is also exceptionally high." says the Guardian. With the death of Janey Antoniou, a leading mental health campaigner and sufferer of Schizophrenia, questions are being asked about why so many people die in mental hospitals whilst undergoing treatment, but also why proper independent investigations aren't carried out afterwards. If a death occurs in a prison then an indenedent body, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman carry out an investigation, independently of the prison service. And deaths whilst in the custodary of the Police are carried out by the IPCC. Whereas deaths in NHS mental health facilities are carried out internally. This discrepency is another sign that the wholsale discrimination of the system, with all it componants towards the mentally ill, is an issue. A big issue.

Janey's death, has led to questions being asked about whether independent equiries should be carried out, and her husband, Dr Antoniou is now leading a campiagn to get this changed. The fact is, he was constantly frustrated by the investigation that was carried out after Janey's death. He still isn't allowed to read the report, but also he was asked no questions about what led up to her death, neither was he consulted about the reasons why she might have died, nor his opinion sort about the conduct of the NHS Trust.

It is my view that should we have an indendent body that investigates these deaths, with the power to censure people who's conduct may have contributed (including doctors, nurses and social workers), then deaths in custodary might actually go down.

Please Help Us Reach More People

I would like to extend my activities and reach more people, both patients and carers, doctors and doctors groups, politicians and political organisations. To do this I would like to raise some funds. I need £500 to help me promote the work I am doing. Please follow this link to make a donation. Thanks.

Paul Farmer Walks.

Mind's Chief Executive has walked from his advisory role with the DWP, on its benefit reforms, saying that the new system is 'deeply flawed'. But as usual the government is completely unyielding and simply claims that because its biased and discriminatory new assessments are kicking a third of claiments off welfare that it must be a sign that all of these people were in fact liars and cheats, determined to sit at home and do nothing all day. He says on the BBC news site that "The Work Capability Assessment really is letting people down... so it's not right for me to be seen to be associated with it." This new assessment puts far too much pressure on people with a stress related illness and there is nothing more stressful than money - particularly when you have little of it. There are rumours that Mind is preparing to take legal action against the government, to try and change the assessment so that it is fairer for mentally ill people and says Chris Grayling the work and pensions minister, this is why he could no longer serve on the advisory panel. Mind denies this.

Patients Aren't Told About Their Rights.

Yes, patients have a right to oppose their detention. But most patients aren't told what their rights are, says Alison Kerry, Mind's Head of Media. Alison was sent a copy of the Manifesto and said that Mind often get calls from patients on section. They call because they've lost their liberty and don't know that they're entitled to legal representation and a tribunal hearing should they want it. And this is an issue I've brought up before.

When I was in hospital in 2001, I was active in the User movement and was employed to advise senior managers and nurses. I met a Department of Health executive at a meeting and asked him if we could meet. He agreed and we made an arrangement to meet up in Bristol. By the time the meeting came round, I was in hospital going through an episode of illness. I was a voluntary patient. I had written down on a sheet of paper all the things I wanted to say, one of them being that patients aren't read their rights when they are interned in hospital. Even criminals get read their rights, I told him. He agreed.

The fact is patients should get read their rights at the moment they get sectioned, plus a referral to a tribunal or mental health act managers review should be automatic. It isn't right that someone going through the worst times of their lives should be left to defend their own rights and should be left ringing round the charity legal advise lines trying to get to grips with how they might defend themselves.