Comments: Bristol Myers Squibb To Pay Feds $515 Million Settlement
My girlfriend took Abilify for Borderline Personality Disorder, and after seeing her on Seroquel, Zyprexa, etc. it certainly has a better side effect profile. There's minimal drowsiness and there's less weight gain (if any), although the risk of diabetes is still there. I think it interrupted her sleep to some extent, and, to be fair, she was taking it at a low dose (2.5 mg), so there might be greater side effects at higher doses. She's been off it for about six days, although she had a bit of an episode last night (the first in quite a while), so I don't know what she'll decide to do.
However, even if I don't hate Abilify quite as much as Philip does, there's really no excuse for this kind of marketing. The black box on Abilify notes that geriatric patients are 1.6 to 1.7 times as likely to die while taking the drug. I don't see how anyone could have authorized this kind of marketing knowing that they were effectively killing the elderly. I guess that as long as it's not their grandparents, they don't care.
Posted by Simon at September 29, 2007 01:50 PM
There's a suicide infomercial in the New York Times Magazine from the Jed Foundation, a pharma front group:
http://nytimesshorts.feedroom.com/?fr_chl=d31ce0ff8aac169ff551065952377d8697886277
http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/171/27/
Posted by Sally at September 29, 2007 02:21 PM
It's not about hating a medication, it's about understanding the unethical promotion of the drug and awareness.Abilify-Increased Mortality in Elderly Patients with Dementia-Related Psychosis.
Abilify is known per psychiatrist circles as a med that induces mania in bipolar patients and in patients who are not bipolar. Just like the antidepressants, it is not what the medication was prescribed for, it is the outcome.[result,reaction]
This med was ramped up by a Psych in a inpatient setting per my 17 yr. old and her behaviors were so erratic, and dangerous within their own unit, that they left me a voicemail agreeing with my observations that the behavior was the same as "Luvox,Zoloft,Ativan...etc." they had to see it for themselves.
THEN we have an unaddressed issue here: Alzheimers patients that are commonly prescribed Abilify and Risperdal for agitation. [as well as Autistic kids].
Posted by Stephany at September 29, 2007 08:03 PM
If the government gets the money, where does the money go? Does it actually get to people?
Posted by Christina T at September 30, 2007 12:32 PM