Summer Fundraiser Begins

As I do every three months, I am today beginning a fundraiser to support me and the work I do on this site. I know it's not Summer yet, but it's close enough to call it the Summer Fundraiser.

The goal for this fundraiser is $4,000 by the end of June 5 or thereabouts from 100 contributors. I also have a sub-goal of at least 10 contributions of $10 or more from people in the Seattle-Tacoma metro area, since I live in said metro area, but during the last fundraiser there were but two contributions from the area. Considering that this site has many readers from the area, it'd be great to see some more support from my adopted homeland.

One contributor already contributed $200 over the weekend, so there's only $3,800 and 99 contributors to go. With 5,000-plus regular readers of this site that shouldn't be a hard goal to hit.

Anyway, as usual the PayPal button is on the right. If you prefer using snail mail, send me an email and I'll shoot you my mailing address. For those of you who already know my mailing address, it remains the same as before (nope, I haven't moved yet for a bunch of complicated reasons, but I still plan to semi-soon).

I appreciate everyone's support.

And, now, let me remind one and all of some of the highlights from this site over the last three months.

There was a ton of news on the Seroquel front, including original reporting by me on an AstraZeneca medical officer for Seroquel who had sexual relationships with a researcher doing studies of the drug and a medical ghostwriter writing up said studies (you might call it all the ultimate conflcit of interest); proof that AZ suppressed several Seroquel studies that were unfavorable to the drug; proof that one researcher claimed that patients lost weight on Seroquel; proof that AZ issued a diabetes/hyperglycemia warning on the drug in Japan in 2002 while insisting all was well with the drug in the US.

Then I made an early round of Seroquel court documents available to the public (has any newspaper done so?) and then made the suppressed Study 15 available to researchers (yes, some took me up on the offer).

On the anti-depressant front, I reported on a major long-term women's health study which showed that anti-depressants were linked to sudden cardiac death in some women and then I rapped NBC News' knuckles for failing to report on the anti-depressant connection. I reported on a study of anti-depressants in teens where suicidality was clearly present and where researchers hid it and I noted how USA Today had basically lied to its readers in declaring no linkage between anti-depressants and the Columbine tragedy.

I also reported on recent studies linking anti-depressants to birth defects and diabetes. Both studies were ignored by the mainstream media.

I also reported on the FDA's approval of Lexapro for use in teenage depression, noting how slim the evidence was for the approval and that, in fact, the drug showed very little efficacy in clinical trials.

Then I added to a Time magazine article on why anti-depressants failed to live up to their hype and picked apart a well-written, but perhaps not so insightful article on chronic depression in the New York Times Sunday Magazine.

I did original reporting on the fact that 10 percent of people being treated for depression are now taking antipsychotics and that antipsychotics are now the top revenue producers for pharma companies, outpacing even statins. Both of these bellweather stats have escaped the mainstream media's notice. I also wrote about a significant study showing that atypical antipsychotics are causing much akathisia in patients. In addition, I tracked (and am tracking) the FDA's odd approval of the new antipsychotic Fanapt.

I also did original reporting on the STAR*D study of depression treatments and how researchers clearly downplayed suicidality that was present in the study.

Then there was that whole conflict of interest brouhaha involving a Lexapro study at JAMA where I broke the news on it ahead of the Wall Street Journal. I reported on just how much money NAMI National is getting from Big Pharma.

I reported on a study showing Depakote failed to beat placebo as a treatment for pediatric bipolar disorder.

I wrote about a fascinating study showing that housing homeless drunks saved the public purse many millions of dollars and I was interviewed by Psychology Today.

There was much more--it's been a busy three months--and I will be getting up very early this morning West Coast time to do some reporting on what could be some significant news, which I hope to write about later today.

Hopefully, all of that justifies the value of this site to you all.

Thanks in advance for your contributions.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at May 20, 2009 12:01 AM
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