But There is an Honest Doc Out There
I was poking around on Nexis the other day and ran into the following from a transcript of a talk Carl Salzman, who is a doc at Harvard Medical School, gave to a group of investment bankers in May 2004. Although he says nice things about atypicals and SSRIs, he has his doubts on how they actually effect people in the day-to-day world. Plus he has a lot of bile for how Pharma companies do their marketing. For example:
"My clinicians are really fed up with the marketing, absolutely fed up with the marketing. And academia is getting fed up with the marketing."
His global point is that drug companies do a great job of creating hype around new meds that doesn't translate into real world success and that they obscure the real world side effects patients experience.
We need more honesty like this. I'll start laddling it out tomorrow.
Posted by Philip Dawdy at October 9, 2005 04:35 PM
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Sure we need honosty in regards to meds. Sure we need to be aware of side effects. Sure we need doctors who will not conceal the truth about meds' negative qualities.
But we also need to not get so bogged down in the side effects issue. We also need greater understanding of how meds work. We also need the help that medication provides.
So, I'm really not trying to trivilize the negative aspects of meds. I know people suffer from side effects, myself included. I know how it feels.
I'm just asking of you to not be so incredibly closed minded when it comes to psychiatric medication. Really.
