Vampire Medicines
In this piece, Dr. David Healy describes the various factors contributing to the lack of awareness surrounding the harmful and potentially dangerous effects of...
Conflicts of Interest at World Conference of Science Journalists
From HealthNewsReview.org: The 10th World Conference of Science Journalists, which occurred recently in San Francisco, received $600,000 total from pharmaceutical and healthcare product companies. In...
More Lavish the Gifts to Doctors Means Costlier Drugs Prescribed
From The New York Times: A new study found that when drug companies give gifts to doctors, the doctors prescribe higher quantities of — and more expensive —...
So Much Care It Hurts: The Impact of Unneeded Treatment
From Kaiser Health News: A growing number of patients and doctors are becoming concerned and speaking out about overtreatment, including unneeded scans, tests, surgeries, and...
Drug Company Sales Reps Should be Banned From Hospitals
From STAT: Despite evidence that drug company sales reps skew prescribing habits, relatively few hospitals have taken the step of barring them. This is a...
SSRI Ineffective at Treating Depression in Individuals with Chronic Kidney Disease
Dr. Madhukar Trivedi and colleagues find that the SSRI sertraline does not reduce depressive symptoms any more than placebo in people with Chronic Kidney Disease.
The Drug Being Pushed on Nursing Home Residents
From Next Avenue: The drug Nuedexta has only been approved for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). However, the maker of...
Gilead Says Drug Profits Must Stay High to Pay for ‘Innovation’
From the Los Angeles Times: In attempting to justify skyrocketing drug prices, John C. Martin, the executive chairman of Gilead Sciences, claimed that pharmaceutical companies...
Health Care? More Like Health Scare!
From the Lown Institute: For pharmaceutical companies who use scare tactics to sell drugs, every day is like Halloween. This list of egregious advertisements shows...
Rigorous Study Finds Antidepressants Worsen Long-Term Outcomes
A new study conducted by Jeffrey Vittengl at Truman University has found that taking antidepressant medications resulted in more severe depression symptoms after nine years.
Vikas Saini: Protecting Patients From Excessive Medicine
In this piece for the BMJ, Jeanne Lenzer profiles Vikas Saini, a cardiologist who is working to fight against excessive medical treatment. His work with...
Drug Dealers in Lab Coats
From The New York Times: For decades, America has waged an ineffective war on illicit drug dealers and drug lords. However, we have failed to...
How UCLA is Fighting a Proxy Patent Battle in India
From The Wire: Xtandi, a life-prolonging cancer drug, currently does not have a patent in India, meaning that Indian cancer patients are able to access...
The Drug Industry’s Triumph Over the DEA
In this piece for The Washington Post, Scott Higham and Lenny Bernstein investigate how a handful of members of Congress, allied with some of the nation's...
Scales Assessing Child and Adolescent Psychopathology Lack Cross-Cultural Validity
Researchers find few existing "psychopathology scales" are appropriate for global utilization.
On the Myth of the Chemical Imbalance
In this piece for Psychology Today, Mark L. Ruffalo critiques the chemical imbalance theory of mental disorder and examines why the chemical imbalance myth persists today despite...
Patient Advocacy Groups Aren’t Always What They Seem
From HealthNewsReview.org: Recent studies have shown that well over half of patient advocacy groups accept money from drug, biotech, or medical device companies, and nearly...
Brain Imaging Results Biased by Lack of Representative Data
What does "normal" brain development throughout childhood look like? It may depend on your demographics.
The Secretive Family Making Billions From the Opioid Crisis
In this piece for Esquire, Christopher Glazek profiles the Sacklers, the family that owns the pharmaceutical company that manufactures OxyContin. He investigates how the Sacklers' marketing...
An Anarchist Teaches Patients to Make Their Own Meds
From STAT: In response to rising drug costs, anarchist and biohacker Michael Laufer plans to teach people to manufacture their own medications.
"The de facto leader...
Billion Dollar Deals and How They Changed Your World
A new BBC documentary, "Health," investigates the deals struck between health professionals and pharmaceutical companies. The documentary includes an interview with Dr. James Davies, co-founder of the...
“Evidence-Based Medicine”: Corporate Medicine’s Instrument
From Medium: The notion of "evidence-based medicine" is that a particular treatment is considered effective if research finds it safe and efficacious in the majority...
Nonprofit Organization Pushes Big Pharma’s Agenda
From HealthNewsReview.org: The Alliance for Patient Access (AfPA), a nonprofit organization that claims to advocate for patients to have access to FDA-approved treatments, has consistently worked...
Psychologists Push For New Approaches to Psychosis: Part 1
Psychologists and people with experience of psychotic symptoms publish a report on new ways of understanding psychosis.
Payment Disclosure Bill is a Good First Step, but More is Needed
From The Globe and Mail: Ontario's newly proposed physician-payment disclosure law is an important first step in the direction of improved health care and increased...
