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Healthy Skepticism Library item: 11901

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

 

Publication type: Journal Article

Feinstein SH.
Review of Medicines out of control? Antidepressants and the conspiracy of goodwill.
Psychiat Serv 2007 Feb; 58:(2):275-276


Abstract:

Reviews the book, Medicines out of control? Antidepressants and the conspiracy of goodwill by Charles Medawar and Anita Hardon (2004). This book is a passionate argument for reframing the way medicine, the pharmaceutical industry, and governments relate to each other and to the consumer in the development, evaluation, prescription, and marketing of medicines. One could come away from this book with the notion that there is a very unfavorable risk-to-benefit ratio specifically for mood-altering drugs and possibly for psychotropic medications in general. The authors express support for using patient outcomes to evaluate medications, but they do not take into account the thousands of lives that have been measurably improved, and sometimes saved, by these medications. Medical service providers, medical scientists, and advocates for people with mental illness could find this book worth reading and the issues that it raises worthy of careful consideration. However, it is a whistle-blowers tale, and, as such, it offers a one-dimensional view of issues and events.

 

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...to influence multinational corporations effectively, the efforts of governments will have to be complemented by others, notably the many voluntary organisations that have shown they can effectively represent society’s public-health interests…
A small group known as Healthy Skepticism; formerly the Medical Lobby for Appropriate Marketing) has consistently and insistently drawn the attention of producers to promotional malpractice, calling for (and often securing) correction. These organisations [Healthy Skepticism, Médecins Sans Frontières and Health Action International] are small, but they are capable; they bear malice towards no one, and they are inscrutably honest. If industry is indeed persuaded to face up to its social responsibilities in the coming years it may well be because of these associations and others like them.
- Dukes MN. Accountability of the pharmaceutical industry. Lancet. 2002 Nov 23; 360(9346)1682-4.