A study in Contra-indications
I know I've been talking a lot about antidepressants in the
last year. But what can I say? There's a lot to talk about
when it comes to these brain-frying poisons. And not to beat
a dead horse again this month, but I feel morally obligated
to give you an update (and a correction) on something I
mentioned in one of last month's Daily Doses (3/26). It's
just too heartbreaking and disturbing to not tell you about.
To recap: In the 3/26 piece, I exposed how pharmaceuticals
manufacturers cherry-pick the research findings they show to
the Food and Drug Administration - perfectly legal under FDA
approval guidelines, mind you - in order to paint as
flattering a picture as possible of their patent medicines.
Remember, if drug companies conduct enough studies (and
their pockets are deep enough to sponsor an infinite
number), the law of averages will eventually provide them
with the few positive outcomes they need for approval! The
amount of cash they lay out for these studies is negligible
in comparison to the enormous profits they rake in from a
new drug.
Further, I pointed out that because these negative or
inconclusive drug studies (likely the bulk of the research)
never see the light of day, we never find out how effective
the pills we're popping really are - or how much needless
side-effect-related suffering is being endured by test
subjects in these swept-under-the-rug studies.
Which brings me to the heartbreaking part. In part 2 of the
3/26 Dose (entitled "FDA-sanctioned manslaughter"), I
mentioned a 19-year-old female test subject who hanged
herself during a trial for a version of a popular
antidepressant that's known to be linked to suicide.
According to my source for last month's piece, the girl was
a perfectly healthy, normal, well-adjusted teenager who just
needed the money (over $7,000 for a 49-day trial) to pay the
tuition to her small Indiana Bible college…
But I've since found out (according to a Los Angeles Times
article) that the girl had been hospitalized earlier in her
teens for a suicide attempt. This means that a teenager with
known suicidal inclinations was allowed to participate in a
drug study for a type of antidepressant with a HISTORICAL
LINK TO SUICIDE!
How could this ever be allowed to happen? Easily. Keep
reading…
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Russian Roulette: The drug biz's barbaric bribe
According to the Times piece, the drug company in question
apparently used only a BRIEF SCREENING INTERVIEW before
selecting this troubled, devout young woman for their trial.
No examination of medical records. No consultation with the
family doctor. Just an interview…
And in that "fireside chat," the girl told the little white
lie that probably killed her: That an Emergency-room stomach-
pumping incident in her early teens was because she
accidentally took too much Tylenol. According to the Times
article, however, a friend of the family claims she actually
overdosed on her dad's prescription drugs because a
boyfriend had dumped her.
Why would she lie about such a thing? Oh, I can think of
about 7,000 reasons.
It's obvious to me that the vast majority of the test
subjects for drug studies are college-age (or post-
collegiate) teens and 20-somethings making human guinea pigs
of themselves for money. Some of them do it again and again -
it's just like waiting tables and delivering pizzas to them.
The Times piece quotes one 22-year old student who had
participated in NINE of these extended, live-in drug
studies!
Here's the kicker: If the screening process for these drug
studies is indeed as lax as the Times article suggests, it
would be EASY for needy kids to fudge the facts a little to
qualify for this kind of research - and drug companies KNOW
IT. That's why in every small college-town newspaper in the
country there are classified ads in the back screaming:
HEALTHY VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! CASH PAID! EARN $$$ NOW!
Do drug companies care that their test subjects may be
putting themselves in mortal danger? Probably not. All they
need is an endless supply of warm, "healthy" bodies they can
bribe into ingesting their chemicals and providing feedback
and data. And if a study goes wrong occasionally - or an
innocent girl ends up dead here and there - so what?
It's not like they have to report it to the FDA or
anything.
Putting their trials on trial,
William Campbell Douglass II, MD
