Over the years I have found the ability of the Atlantic to have dulling effect on the sensibilities of doctors and the media remarkable. It’s a phenomenon that only affects prescription drugs.While we in the UK eagerly follow every twist and turn in American cultural life, illegal pharmaceutical activities that may have serious implications for […]
What is wrong with randomised trials Part 2
May 5, 2013 by 4 Comments
Could alcohol get a licence as a drug for depression? How do you test for the safety of a drug that causes the same side effects as the disease it is used to treat? These are just two of the points I didn’t have room for in my post last week on randomised controlled trials (RCTs) […]
The dream that has become a nightmare
October 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Millions of us have a problem sleeping; it’s one of the top reasons for GP visits. Unfortunately for insomniacs the way it is generally treated provides a vivid case history of why our current system of evidence based medicine needs a radical overhaul. The dream of improving medicine with system that would separate good […]
You can’t even trust Lucozade and that matters
July 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Did you register the huge 3 billion dollar fine recently slapped on GlaxoSmithKline, Britain’s biggest drug company and manufacturer of Lucozade ? And if so, did you briefly wonder whether it was enough? After all, hiding data that your product can kill people and making unsupported claims about safety would normally be enough to put […]
Pharmageddon: how distortion and cover up happens
April 25, 2012 by 5 Comments
The most detailed and passionate statement of what has gone wrong with evidence based medicine and how it is damaging patients can be found in a new book called Pharmageddon by psychiatrist and campaigner Professor David Healy (published by the University of California Press, £27.95). I wrote a summary of the book with David Healy, […]
Prescribing off label – common and unscientific
April 18, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Two recent reports have just peered into a murky corner of evidence based medicine and found illegal doings and a distinct lack of evidence Over 11% of the prescriptions handed out in Canada were done off-label, according to a study published yesterday What this means that there weren’t clinical trials backing up their use for that condition. […]
Article: Watchdog ignored drugs risks for years
July 7, 2008 by Leave a Comment
This article was published in the Daily Mail on 7th July 2008. [Daily Mail Permalink] It’s about how drug companies regularly conceal evidence of drug dangers and how the drug watch dog – the MHRA – seems unable to take any effective steps to regulate this behaviour. Drugs involved include heavyweight tranquillisers called antipsychotics, SSRI antidepressants the anti-inflammatory Vioxx and […]
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