Furious Seasons

November 20, 2009

British National Health Service Goes After American Website

A few of you likely know of Dr. Bonkers, the Bonkers Institute and its website. Bonkers--aka Ben Hansen--has tirelessly catalogued pharma ads for psych meds for four years and recently posted some National Health Service brochures he obtained that are alarming. In them, children, teens and young adults are basically told to shut up and take their meds--Zyprexa, Risperdal and Strattera (links are to the brochures). In making them publicly available, Hansen has apparently angered the NHS which contact him and asked him to edit out much of the brochure from his website. Hansen refused (see the exchange below).

Some of the language in the brochures is interesting. I'll focus on the Zyprexa brochure.

"Your Medicine is called Olanzapine. Pronounced 'o-lan-za-peen.'
"Many children, teenagers and young people need to take medicines prescribed by doctors to help them stay well and healthy."

Here's a question for NHS: On what basis do you argue that Zyprexa--oops, Olanzapine--keeps children healthy? What randomized clinical trial proves this in children? Is it even approved for use in children and teens in the UK? If so, for what? Even Lilly's UK website doesn't say. Or are you in essence helping off-label market to kids and teens?

Then:

"When you first start taking olanzapine it may make you feel a bit sleepy, but this should wear off after a few days. It may make you feel like eating more food. If this happens, try not to eat more than usual, and talk to an adult or your doctor about this.
"How long do I need to take olanzapine for? You will need to keep taking olanzapine until your doctor tells you to stop. It helps to keep you well, so you should keep taking it even if you feel better."

That kind of rot speaks for itself. The other brochures strike a similar tone. Now check out what the NHS's deputy chief pharmacist told Hansen:

"Could I please request that you amend the site so that it is no longer possible to access the whole leaflet -- the front page and our contact details would be appropriate. I'm sure you appreciate that the only way that we will be able to produce more materials for patient benefit is by recouping the cost from other organisations which want to use them -- our objective is provide written materials to support the verbal counselling given by healthcare professionals -- they are not meant to stand alone as sources of information. We charge a reasonable fee for full access to all the children's leaflets and so it not in our interest, or necessarily, patients and parents to have access to them on your website without the professional support intended."

Wow, the British government charges for these brochures? I wonder what groups use them and under what circumstances. And don't you just love the irony of the British government trying to censor an American website? Good luck with that!

Hansen replied:

"We posted the NHS leaflets to stimulate public scrutiny of your agency. We call upon the NHS to stop promoting harmful psychotropic drugs for children. In a spirit of full disclosure and transparency, we have now posted your letter as well."

You can read the emails at the bottom of each link above. (Via opednews.com.)

I call upon Hansen to continue to make such advertisements and brochures available. If any of you have "interesting" brochures and whatnot from the US, UK, Canada, Australia or wherever, feel free to pass them along to me or Dr. Bonkers.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at November 20, 2009 12:03 AM

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Comments

"It may make you feel like eating more food. If this happens, try not to eat more than usual, and talk to an adult or your doctor about this."

This is the biggest crock. Short of putting a lock on the fridge door and withholding allowance, "trying not to eat more than usual" is impossible on antipsychotics. How the heck is talking to your doctor or another adult going to make you lose weight?

Posted by: Rossa Forbes at November 20, 2009 06:55 AM

This man irritates me so much I am thinking of devoting some serious mania time to giving flame wars a whole new meaning.

Posted by: lili at November 20, 2009 09:21 AM

LOLOL I meant BNHS. Must not type while manic. Go Dr.Bonkers!

Posted by: lili at November 20, 2009 09:26 AM

My response to this and excuse my language but WTF?! This is so outrageous I can hardly stand it. What naive nincompoops designed those brochures (with help I can guess from we know who) and then the NHS has the gall actually to charge for their lies and deceit? And then they wonder why they're going broke. It's all about crippling and disabling children and making them dependent for their whole life. My mind boggles. Huge kudos to Hansen for uncovering this disgrace and here's hoping his efforts bring down the whole house of cards.

Posted by: Sara at November 20, 2009 11:37 AM

I love it when these types attempt to bully bloggers/website writers.

Give me a break, they won't succeed at bullying me either:

http://bipolarsoupkitchen-stephany.blogspot.com/2009/11/nhs-goes-after-american-website-over.html

I've adding the "fine print" of that ridiculous NHS leaflet on my blog, and encourage all bloggers to do it.

I've used it as an opportunity to remind people that the Viva Zyprexa! marketing slogan buried in those precious internal documents Lilly despises being made public--

to show the pill bottles my daughter was given for her "5 at 5 o'clock" campaign.

The NHS propaganda is surely based on Lilly's marketing guidelines.

Every day my daughter (A TEENAGER THEN) was to take that pill and she gained 100lbs and her eyes would roll upward, and she was knocked out for sleep by 8pm, horrible, horrible withdrawals, and withdrawal psychosis!

Keep on pushing it forward Ben Hansen, and never back down to the NHS or anyone else!

The drugging of children is a crime committed by drug companies, for example, if Lilly was given a criminal penalty by the Dept of Justice, then it proves Lilly committed a crime against my daughter.

She was a victim of a marketing scheme, and I will not stop talking about it until true justice is served--payment to the innocent victims of these drugs, Seroquel included.

Being vocal is a risk, you get harrassed a lot, grow a thick skin and speak up! everyone!

Posted by: Stephany at November 20, 2009 12:28 PM

The Bonkers Institute is the new home of rock and roll!

Posted by: Sally at November 20, 2009 12:29 PM

Creepiest brochures I've seen in a long time. My skin is crawling! Look at the zoned-out eyes on the kartoon kiddies.

Posted by: Miranda at November 20, 2009 03:13 PM

This is just sick. When people don't even care enough to protect kids. I have saved the brochures. If the NHS really tries to control them, they can be reposted in various places until BHS finally give up on this nasty plan.

Posted by: MedsVsTherapy at November 20, 2009 07:43 PM

The current incumbent of the office of Secretary of State for Health is a (Gordon Brown) Texture (Like Sun) appointment. His name is Andrew Burnham, and his email address is freely available on the Houses of Parliament website. In fact, it is so freely available, that I'll reproduce it, here, to save you looking: BURNHAMA@parliament.uk. This is the standard naming protocol for all british politicians (ie, SURNAMEFIRST INITIAL@parliament.uk).

Please don't assume that by informing you of this that I would in any way encourage you to write to Mr Burnham, informing him of your views. In any case, he is only required to respond to his constituents. Also, please note that the previous incumbent, Alan Johnson, was promoted to the office of Home Secretary, so successful was his tenure (amongst other things, Mr Johnson oversaw the MHRA "investigation" into GSK's withholding of clinical trial data).

Matt

Posted by: Matthew Holford at November 22, 2009 02:53 PM