Blog subjects: Pseudoscience in the mental-health industry Unethical behavior among pharmaceutical companies Whatever else strikes my fancy Note:  This site has absolutely no association with any outside group, and most especially not with the “Church” of Scientology. Other sites: Positive Psych Psych Watch Psychlies Pharma Watch AHRP Infomails Medical Rants Blog archives: Sept. 2004 Aug. 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 Feb. 2004 Jan. 2004 Dec. 2003 Nov. 2003 Oct. 2003 Sept. 2003 Aug. 2003 July, 2003 June, 2003 May, 2003 April, 2003 Mar. 2003 Feb. 2003 Jan. 2003 Dec. 2002 Nov. 2002 Oct. 2002 Sept. 2002 Aug. 2002

My standard disclaimer:  Blog updates occur sporadically.  I'm just too busy to maintain a schedule of daily entries.  Thanks for understanding.

Sunday, May 30, 2004

Just in case anyone is wondering:  I have most certainly not given up on this blog.  The past few weeks have been an unusually busy time for me, and I have simply not been able to keep up with blogging.  I expect to return to semi-regular blog updates soon.  The subject matter of this blog is very important to me – far too important for me to abandon the fight, especially now that the level of skepticism seems to be increasing (slowly – too slowly!) among the medical establishment as well as among the general public.  I shall return!

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

I'm still as busy as a herd of beavers in the depths of an amphetamine binge.  Or something.  Anyway, my point is that I have not been able to update my blog as often as I would like.  Here's a few stories:

• From Therapy's Lenny Bruce:  Get Over It!  Stop Whining!
• Has the Romance Gone?  Was It the Drug?
• Behavior Drugs Lead in Sales for Children
• Pfizer to Pay $420 Million in Illegal Marketing Case
• It's Cure Nonsense
• New study showing brisk walk can kick depression
• Are antidepressants risky?
• Behavior Drugs Fuel Rise in Child Drug Costs:  More Money Spent on Behavior Drugs Than Antibiotic or Asthma Drugs
• As kids get psychiatric drugs, some experts ask why
• Newer psychiatric drugs carry obesity and diabetes risks
• Drugmakers Face an Angry Public

Loyal blog-reader Fred sends along these recommendations:

• Unpublished data reverses risk-benefit of drugs
• Revealed: how drug firms 'hoodwink' medical journals
• Eli Lilly, Zyprexa, & the Bush Family
• Drug use or abuse?  'Pharmaceutical Man' has arrived

Friday, May 7, 2004

Sorry about the lack of blog updates lately.  I've just been so busy with other activities.

When citing an article on my blog, I usually write a brief commentary and then quote a few paragraphs from the article.  However, I'm pressed for time right now, and I have a huge backlog of articles I wanted to include in blog entries.  So, I'm just going to link to the article, sans discussion or quotation.  (Incidentally, just because I cite an article doesn't necessarily mean that I agree with everything in the piece.)

I apologize for cutting corners, but it's almost midnight here, and I still have other things I need to do before I go to bed tonight.  I don't really expect people to read all these, but maybe Gentle Readers can click on the ones that look particularly relevant or interesting:

• Should depressed teens take drugs?
• Drug safety agency accused of industry bias
• High Anxiety: I'm a reasonably happy person – or at least I was before I went into psychotherapy
• Disease du jour: It's often the fad that's contagious, some doctors say
• Method in their madness
• Worrying signs of the times
• Millions of pills do not make anybody happy
• Antidepressant Use in Children Soars Despite Efficacy Doubts
• Lining up at the identity clinic
• A Smokeless Alternative to Quitting
• Ride the Blues Away
• Why millions of women are hooked on the happy pills
• Medicine to console the sullen (Alex's comment: This article is 95% bullsnot.)
• Get off that couch
• Warning over food supplement
• Consequences of Blowing the Whistle in Medical Research
• Campuses expand mental health services as students report more suicidal thoughts
• Opening Pandora's medicine cabinet
• Fake knee op 'as good as surgery'
• EDITORIAL:  Marketing meds to kids

More articles coming in the next few days.