The problem seems to me to be that pharma companie$ adverti$e a lot and have long memorie$. I would bet dollars to donuts that the more money an entity receives from big pharma, the less likely it is to criticize big pharma.

In addition, I am confused as to why the American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association and their fellow organizations in the UK, Europe and Australia haven't issued even the most tepid of statements on the matter. What part of Hippocratic Oath and social responsibility don't you people get?

You don't think (possibly) that there is an element of "guilt by association" at work here? No, probably not . . . those god-like physicians who comprise these organizations know little about guilt . . . only about "liability." Wouldn't an admission that they mis-prescribed be an admission of culpability and open them up to lawsuits? Doctors UNDERSTAND lawsuits and will deny responsibility as long as they possibly can--to hell with Hippocrates!

If you're referring to the same American Psychological Association that has as its top goal to get psychologists "prescription privileges," meaning to allow psychologists to prescribe psych meds, then don't expect them to take a stand. If you look at APA's lack of stand-taking regarding psychologists' roles in military interrogations, then you can also guess that APA is not a group that challenges authority despite being labeled by some as a bunch of hippie liberals.
The American Psychiatric Association -- hello -- as if they would bite the hand that feed them!

There is no question anyone who prescribed Zyprexa will use "I didn't know the truth either" as a way to remain out of court in this matter.
Even if they suspected the truth; it's all hearsay, and would be hard to prove in court.

The truth is here now though. It IS time for all involved to step-up to the plate.

The reckless prescribing of antipsychotics for use such as insomnia, anxiety,etc. and especially in kids under 18 is the first place to begin to STOP this madness.

I don't understand how any doctor can look the other way when reading the already existing prescibing information on (for instance Zyprexa, etc)these meds and not shake in their boots wondering if their patient will remain alive as a result of use.(and especially in kids under 18).

To use an antipsychotic, such as these (Zyprexa,Clozaril,Seroquel,etc.)without considering possible outcomes in my opinion: is reckless endangerment of lives.

The general public MUST ask for this information at minimum, at the pharmacy. It's even online. There are no secrets in the fine print there. Reading the fine print alone scares me to death that myself or loved one(s)don't die as a result of ingesting medications like these in the pursuit of a quality life.

The Zyprexa documents will hopefully shed light on internal (how things work) workings of every single public agency representing psychiatric care.(always remember that many psych meds are commonly prescribed by general docs for insomnia).

This is one of the biggest 'connect the dots' ever; and once the pattern is shown, it will be clear the industry is a fully-loaded hierarchy of deceipt.

.."What part of Hippocratic Oath and social responsibility don't you people get?"

I used that phrase in various speeches to several big-wig psychiatrists when advocating for my family member.

Reminding psychiatrists (or any doctor) of the "Oath" and "First do no harm" can be a pretty interesting discussion to say the least.

I wasted no time reminding docs they have a responsibility, to 'do no harm'. ( I didn't receive a flower bouquet of thanks for that either.(sarcasm).)

Patients, consumers, advocates: speak up. It's YOUR responsibility also. The system can't and won't change without YOUR hard work.

I’ve been wrestling with why this isn’t a bigger story for five years, ever since I got into this business with the psych drug induced death of my daughter. To add insult to injury where is Alex Berenson now? Off writing a novel. Please. I sure hope the pharmaceutical industry is at least a player in his novel, another King of Torts or Constant Gardener. Why isn’t he writing this all up in more detail? And writing non-fiction instead of fiction? Believe me the truth is plenty thrilling enough. The fact is journalists have a very short attention span it seems (present company excepted of course). And worse than that the public isn’t really reading the papers the way they should either. It seems the most avid readers of all these articles are the people who already understand what’s going on. The sad fact is the scope of this problem embraces something much greater than poor treatment paradigms. Until patients stop wanting diagnoses and treatment with pills this isn’t going to be a very news-grabbing story. We are really talking about a cultural problem here.

Also this really isn’t just about pills being approved legitimately and then dangers being discovered later. The approval process itself is rife with corruption. Please read Mad in America to learn the story of how atypicals were approved. The clinical trials were a farce. Severely mentally ill “treated” patients were taken off meds abruptly right before the trials, endured a short and brutal withdrawal period, and then some were put on placebo and some were put back on the new drugs. Some of the people who conducted these trials are now in jail! No wonder the patients who were on the drugs did better; the other group was still in the throes of a brutal withdrawal. Is this any way to approve a drug? Furthermore the trials were only a few weeks long generally as if this is going to prove anything when as we all know people are put on these drugs for the duration. David Healy has called Zyprexa the most deadly drug that’s ever been approved (sorry don’t have a specific reference handy but something like that anyway).

Meanwhile the murder and mayhem caused by the drugs is increasing exponentially. I helped create the site www.ssristories.com. It’s a layman’s effort to do a little epidemiological study of what’s going on in clinical practice with people taking antidepressants and it’s a horrifying picture. It doesn’t prove a lot but it is certainly some kind of signal of something dangerously amiss. And even this list of stories doesn’t really attract a lot of interest. You’d think in a way someone would jump on it but nope – met with sighs and groans.

Until we move away from the allopathic model and recognize that even mania and psychosis might be better treated with a bare minimum of drugs this story is not going to have legs. I wrote a review of A Beautiful Mind that’s on Amazon under “Justiceseeker”. The author of that book was one smart lady but she missed the message. Everyone was totally befuddled about how John Nash could have gotten better without more treatment and came up with all sorts of fabrications about why his case was so unique instead of grasping the main point that it was precisely because he had so little treatment that he got better. Even he didn’t get it as he supports the aggressive treatment his poor son is now enduring. The film of the book went so far as to misrepresent the amount of treatment he did have so as not to scare off “treated” people in the audience who might be tempted to stop their meds if they knew the truth.

But you know what -- despite hitting our heads against a brick wall we need to keep at it because some kind of tipping point is fast approaching and we have to make it happen. And lives are at stake.

Sara,

First, thank you for sharing your wisdom based on grief of losing your daughter. There are no words for such a loss.

Several key points you make in your post that are so important:
1. Questioning Alex not writing in more detail. I am not a journalist, but I know most people have a boss to report to...

2."avid readers ...already ..understand (the issue).
Exactly. We, for whatever reason, being a mental health patient, parent, relative, friend, etc...see this type of article (or for instance advertising)because we DO understand. This stuff jumps off of the page when we see it.Though, my hope is that these recent events will somehow be noticed by more people, and I have a feeling this is happening. Sara, I also feel your efforts are not falling on deaf ears.

Your voice on this blog, has been very informative, and I commend you for speaking out here.

Thank you for sharing.
--Stephany

Berenson may have been "encouraged" to go fly a kite I mean go write a book. Judge Weinstein wrote that his conduct was reprehensible.

Thanks for the support Stephany. Just wanted to clarify that Berenson is taking a leave to write his novel. I kind of assume this was planned before the Zyprexa story broke but don't know. It just strikes me as a shame that he's not writing a book on some of the stuff he's learned through his reporting, which I have always considered excellent, instead of a novel. I didn't mean to imply that his articles should have been more detailed. This will not be his first novel so I appreciate he likes writing fiction and probably has a talent for it. I just wish someone of his caliber would turn their writing skills to this topic in book form (but then again it wouldn't have the potential to be a blockbuster perhaps the way a novel does).

And it gives the appearance that journalists--just like Big Pharma--are always chasing the blockbuster.