The big fat pharmaceutical lie
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The big pharmaceutical companies are not interested in health. Our governments are not interested in health. It’s all politics, money and perpetuating the prohibition paradigm.
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Peter Gotzsche writes that the ten biggest drug companies in the world commit repeated and serious crimes to such a degree that they fulfill the criteria for organised crime under US law. His findings show how huge the consequences of the crimes are. They involve colossal thefts of public monies and they contribute substantially to the fact that prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer. He goes on to tell us-
‘The main reason we take so many drugs is that drug companies don’t sell drugs, they sell lies about drugs. This is what makes drugs so different from anything else in life… Virtually everything we know about drugs is what the companies have chosen to tell us and our doctors… The reason patients trust their medicine is that they extrapolate the trust they have in their doctors into the medicines they prescribe. The patients don’t realise that, although their doctors may know a lot about diseases and human physiology and psychology, they know very, very little about drugs that hasn’t been carefully concocted and dressed up by the drug industry. If such a hugely lethal epidemic had been caused by a new bacterium or a virus, or even one hundredth of it, we would have done everything we could to get it under control.’
(http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/20/health/a-dry-pipeline-for-psychiatric-drugs.html) In a New York Times article from August this year Dr. Richard Friedman explains that since Prozac came on to the market 25 years ago more than twenty per cent of Americans regularly take mind-altering drugs prescribed by their doctors. The daily routine in many households, for parents and children alike, includes a dose of poorly understood medications whose long-term effects on the body are unknown. Sales of these drugs amounted to more than seventy billion dollars in 2010.
But the psychiatric-drug industry is in trouble. “We are facing a crisis,” claims the Cornell psychiatrist. In the past few years one pharmaceutical giant after another—GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Novartis, Pfizer, Merck, Sanofi—has shrunk or shuttered its neuroscience research facilities. Clinical trials have been halted and lines of research abandoned. The pipeline of new drug treatments has run dry.
This is because clinicians have been unable to find new ways to treat mental disorder. The patchy reasoning they came up with for why some drugs seem to work doesn’t match new findings of neuroscience. And neuroscience has not provided any marketable chemical innovations.
Friedman told the Times-
“Just because an S.S.R.I. antidepressant increases serotonin in the brain and improves mood, that does not mean that serotonin deficiency is the cause of the disease”
Of course, as long as the general public trust their doctors, and doctors act as vendors for the drug companies, there is still money to be made from old rope. The pharmaceutical companies are making a lot of money from lies and manipulation.
Doctors are indoctrinated into a system which doesn't allow for more natural treatments, or even treatments which are being proven to be effective, but carry too much financial risk. There is currently a rise in research into MDMA and psilocybin treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Unfortunately the legal status of these substances means that funding is almost non existent, and so too are licenses to conduct the research.
Ben Sessa, a consultant psychiatrist tells us how drug legislation hinders his work
‘My current area of expertise is in developing a UK-based study to explore the role for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in the treatment of PTSD. This is a project I am currently planning at Cardiff University.
We are in the process of seeking funding, possibly from some of the UK Combat-PTSD charities. The clinical and financial burden of untreated combat PTSD in the UK is massive. Our study costs will be a drop in the ocean, and vitally important if it can help lead to a valid new treatment for PTSD.
The symptoms of PTSD have made it notoriously difficult to treat using traditional psychotherapy, mainly because revisiting the trauma causes the sufferer to relive the 'fight or flight' response, and feel re-traumatised by attempts at therapeutic intervention.
In the US, scientists found that MDMA can be used to bypass the cortisol/adrenaline flood associated with trauma, allowing patients to process their experience and make effective use of therapy. However, even if trials of the drug could be carried out in the UK, no doctor would be allowed to prescribe the drug due to current legislation.’
Clinical trials of LSD in the 1950s and 1960s showed that they could be used to treat alcoholism, even the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill Wilson claimed to have experimented with it. But since the worldwide prohibition of these substances, there has been no clinical research using modern techniques such as MRI scans.
Psilocybin, the active ingredient of liberty cap (magic) mushrooms has been used to help dying patients with end of life therapy, but again, even with evidence to support the efficacy of this treatment, research is severely limited.
Dr Sessa tells us-
‘The drug laws as they stand make research with psychedelics very difficult. LSD, psilocybin and MDMA are relatively physiologically benign substances that can be used safely for research with only very minimal toxicity issues. But because they are restricted and controlled it is difficult to get a Home Office license to study them for clinical trials. It is also very difficult to encourage funders to support such projects, because they fear too much of a reputational risk to be associated with such projects.
The result is - essential research does not get done. Ultimately those patients who could benefit from novel approaches to mental disorder are left to suffer.’
The Guardian recently ran an article on Professor David Nutt, a leading neuroscientist and former government drug adviser. (http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/04/drugs-legislation-david-nutt-john-maddox) The article tells us that Professor Nutt was recently awarded the 2013 John Maddox Prize for "promoting science and evidence on a matter of public interest, despite facing difficulty and hostility in doing so." Nutt told the Guardian that legislation had been "very much more detrimental to research than people had imagined….The costs of working in this field mean that pharma companies won't do it."
Referring also to the possible benefits of MDMA to sufferers of Parkinson’s disease, and benefits of cannabis for chronic pain and depression Prof Nutt says -
"The science of consciousness, the science of serotonin, the science of empathy, those basic sciences are limited by the current rules to a point where people don't even consider [it].....Clinically – pain, Parkinson's disease, depression – are three areas where progress has been stunted or blocked. The regulations make it so difficult that most people don't have the strength of will. [The research] doesn't happen at all."
Nutt told the Guardian it was down to-
"gesture politics….There's another rule made 50 years ago that has never been reconsidered, which is that schedule 1 drugs need special licences... There's no reason for that. Why is it that I can work with heroin every day of the week but I have to get a special licence to work with cannabis? Does that make any sense? Heroin is much more harmful. These are archaic, arbitrary regulations that are stifling research. The government has become much more bureaucratic in the last couple of years about this and that's made a lot of researchers give up."
It seems that pharmaceutical companies would benefit from a change in legislation, maybe finding provable ways to help reduce suffering. But more importantly, a new generation of people in need of help could be given safe and effective treatments. Unfortunately, as Peter Gotzsche explains in his book, it all comes down to politics and money.
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About the two contributors to this article
Peter Gotzsche has published more than 50 papers in “the big five” (British Medical Journal, Lancet, Journal of the American Medical Association, Annals of Internal Medicine and New England Journal of Medicine) and his scientific works have been cited over 10,000 times. He is author of the books “Rational Diagnosis and Treatment. Evidence-Based Clinical Decision-Making” (2007), ”Mammography Screening: truth, lies and controversy” (2012), and ”Deadly medicines and organised crime: How big pharma has corrupted health care” (2013).
Dr. Sessa is a consultant psychiatrist working in substance misuse services in Weston Super Mare, near Bristol. He is also researching the use of psychedelic drugs (particularly LSD, psilocybin, MDMA and ketamine) as adjuncts to psychotherapy to treat a range of mental health disorders. He has written widely on this subject in the popular press and in medical literature. (See website for a list of published articles and books and useful links to PDFs of some of the papers: www.drsessa.com).
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This is because clinicians have been unable to find new ways to treat mental disorder. The patchy reasoning they came up with for why some drugs seem to work doesn’t match new findings of neuroscience. And neuroscience has not provided any marketable chemical innovations.
Friedman told the Times-
“Just because an S.S.R.I. antidepressant increases serotonin in the brain and improves mood, that does not mean that serotonin deficiency is the cause of the disease”
Of course, as long as the general public trust their doctors, and doctors act as vendors for the drug companies, there is still money to be made from old rope. The pharmaceutical companies are making a lot of money from lies and manipulation.
Doctors are indoctrinated into a system which doesn't allow for more natural treatments, or even treatments which are being proven to be effective, but carry too much financial risk. There is currently a rise in research into MDMA and psilocybin treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Unfortunately the legal status of these substances means that funding is almost non existent, and so too are licenses to conduct the research.
Ben Sessa, a consultant psychiatrist tells us how drug legislation hinders his work
‘My current area of expertise is in developing a UK-based study to explore the role for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in the treatment of PTSD. This is a project I am currently planning at Cardiff University.
We are in the process of seeking funding, possibly from some of the UK Combat-PTSD charities. The clinical and financial burden of untreated combat PTSD in the UK is massive. Our study costs will be a drop in the ocean, and vitally important if it can help lead to a valid new treatment for PTSD.
The symptoms of PTSD have made it notoriously difficult to treat using traditional psychotherapy, mainly because revisiting the trauma causes the sufferer to relive the 'fight or flight' response, and feel re-traumatised by attempts at therapeutic intervention.
In the US, scientists found that MDMA can be used to bypass the cortisol/adrenaline flood associated with trauma, allowing patients to process their experience and make effective use of therapy. However, even if trials of the drug could be carried out in the UK, no doctor would be allowed to prescribe the drug due to current legislation.’
Clinical trials of LSD in the 1950s and 1960s showed that they could be used to treat alcoholism, even the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill Wilson claimed to have experimented with it. But since the worldwide prohibition of these substances, there has been no clinical research using modern techniques such as MRI scans.
Psilocybin, the active ingredient of liberty cap (magic) mushrooms has been used to help dying patients with end of life therapy, but again, even with evidence to support the efficacy of this treatment, research is severely limited.
Dr Sessa tells us-
‘The drug laws as they stand make research with psychedelics very difficult. LSD, psilocybin and MDMA are relatively physiologically benign substances that can be used safely for research with only very minimal toxicity issues. But because they are restricted and controlled it is difficult to get a Home Office license to study them for clinical trials. It is also very difficult to encourage funders to support such projects, because they fear too much of a reputational risk to be associated with such projects.
The result is - essential research does not get done. Ultimately those patients who could benefit from novel approaches to mental disorder are left to suffer.’
The Guardian recently ran an article on Professor David Nutt, a leading neuroscientist and former government drug adviser. (http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/04/drugs-legislation-david-nutt-john-maddox) The article tells us that Professor Nutt was recently awarded the 2013 John Maddox Prize for "promoting science and evidence on a matter of public interest, despite facing difficulty and hostility in doing so." Nutt told the Guardian that legislation had been "very much more detrimental to research than people had imagined….The costs of working in this field mean that pharma companies won't do it."
Referring also to the possible benefits of MDMA to sufferers of Parkinson’s disease, and benefits of cannabis for chronic pain and depression Prof Nutt says -
"The science of consciousness, the science of serotonin, the science of empathy, those basic sciences are limited by the current rules to a point where people don't even consider [it].....Clinically – pain, Parkinson's disease, depression – are three areas where progress has been stunted or blocked. The regulations make it so difficult that most people don't have the strength of will. [The research] doesn't happen at all."
Nutt told the Guardian it was down to-
"gesture politics….There's another rule made 50 years ago that has never been reconsidered, which is that schedule 1 drugs need special licences... There's no reason for that. Why is it that I can work with heroin every day of the week but I have to get a special licence to work with cannabis? Does that make any sense? Heroin is much more harmful. These are archaic, arbitrary regulations that are stifling research. The government has become much more bureaucratic in the last couple of years about this and that's made a lot of researchers give up."
It seems that pharmaceutical companies would benefit from a change in legislation, maybe finding provable ways to help reduce suffering. But more importantly, a new generation of people in need of help could be given safe and effective treatments. Unfortunately, as Peter Gotzsche explains in his book, it all comes down to politics and money.
============================================================================
About the two contributors to this article
Peter Gotzsche has published more than 50 papers in “the big five” (British Medical Journal, Lancet, Journal of the American Medical Association, Annals of Internal Medicine and New England Journal of Medicine) and his scientific works have been cited over 10,000 times. He is author of the books “Rational Diagnosis and Treatment. Evidence-Based Clinical Decision-Making” (2007), ”Mammography Screening: truth, lies and controversy” (2012), and ”Deadly medicines and organised crime: How big pharma has corrupted health care” (2013).
Dr. Sessa is a consultant psychiatrist working in substance misuse services in Weston Super Mare, near Bristol. He is also researching the use of psychedelic drugs (particularly LSD, psilocybin, MDMA and ketamine) as adjuncts to psychotherapy to treat a range of mental health disorders. He has written widely on this subject in the popular press and in medical literature. (See website for a list of published articles and books and useful links to PDFs of some of the papers: www.drsessa.com).
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