Furious Seasons

December 18, 2006

The Zyprexa Chronicles: Lilly Responds To Accusations Of Off-Label Marketing

Eli Lilly issued a statement in response to today's article in the New York Times, which detailed how the company engaged in off-label marketing of Zyprexa. Read it for yourself. The article itself is here. One interesting point: Lilly says that 50 percent of mental health care in this country is delivered by primary care doctors. Thanks for confirming what other doctors have told me. It is utterly moronic that, as a culture, we have primary care doctors--generally way over-worked without time to properly keep up on developments in the psych world--making diagnoses of bipolar disorder, for example, which is very tricky to diagnose, and then being educated by Eli Lilly's sales force about meds. That's a recipe for disaster.

Liz Spikol makes the point that she holds doctors as responsible for the Zyprexa mess as she does Eli Lilly. I agree, although it looks like much of the blame must be placed on primary care doctors, who should be better educated about what they are prescribing to patients. It's ironic, too, that primary care doctors have become so loathe to prescribe pain killers for back spasms--under pressure from the DEA--but are so willing to prescribe powerful psychiatric drugs to adults, teens and, yes, children.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at December 18, 2006 10:44 AM

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Comments

I applaud your blog!

The first time i was prescribed a psyche drug 1983 it was generic doxepin antidepressant.When i asked my doctor why doxepin he said,"because it has 40% of the market share"

Zyprexa and these other 'anti-psychotics' make the patient slow and sleepy,that's all they do for most patients at $300.00 a month or more.

Daniel Haszard

Posted by: Daniel Haszard at December 18, 2006 12:11 PM

My (old and never been back to him) Primary tried his own method of prescribing different things without letting meds get outta my system, then bailed when I turned psychotic and suicidal on Paxil. Told me I was a Paranoid Schizophrenic and said call the 1-800 # for Psych help. Nice, huh?

Posted by: ttq at December 18, 2006 12:28 PM

What I don't understand about this culture is, primary care doctors, would (I'm assuming based on their level of education and experience) refuse to be dx'd and/or treated for the same condtions by anyone less than a specialist. -Or, perhaps, their if it was one of their own children that needed to be treated or screened. As well, the fat cats at big pharma, I'm sure, would never let a family doctor label their child and pump them full of Zyprexa long term. They would be the first person to call that doctor a quack and march that child to a specialist. -So why is it acceptable for the rest of us?

Posted by: Priscilla at December 18, 2006 03:14 PM

That's a good question, Priscilla. One reason has got to be the stigma and fear people have about psychiatry, so long as they get their meds from a PCP they can kid themselves about the seriousness of their mental illness.

As per medical records it's my understanding that the same meds will be coded differently, depending on whether you get them from a PCP or psychiatrist, the latter starts a paper trail with the individual as "mental patient." That's a big step for some.

Posted by: flawedplan at December 19, 2006 02:15 PM

Wow. I see... Thanks for sharing the info. As GI Joe said "Knowing is half the battle."

Posted by: Marisa at January 9, 2007 03:22 PM