About the Author
Richard Cochrane is trained in chemistry and metallurgy but is far more interested and practiced as a political and fund raising consultant, writer and amateur historian. He grew up in a Navy family and with his two younger brothers carried on its 500+ year tradition of naval service to Great Britain and the USA then enjoyed a career with one of the largest advertising and public relations agencies working with numerous Fortune 500 companies and many of America's premier educational institutions. He maintains friendships and acquaintanceships around the world. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.
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January 17th, 2008 •
Richard Cochrane
Nearly a third of antidepressant drug studies are never published says the New England Journal of Medicine and nearly all happen to show that the drug being tested did not work. In some of the studies that are published, unfavorable results have been recast to make the medicine appear more effective than it really is, said the research team led by Erick Turner of the Oregon Health & Science University. Of 74 drugs studied 36 had negative results but only 3 were published while all positive studies were.
For example, of the seven negative studies done on GlaxoSmithKline’s Paxil, five were never published. There were five studies for Pfizer’s Zoloft, but the three showing the drug to be ineffective were not published. A fourth study, ruled questionable by the FDA, was written and published to make it appear that the drug worked. Despite negative results the drugs are promoted and marketed, and antidepressants are among the most prescribed drugs – even if they do not work.
Dr. Ronald Dworkin’s book “Artificial Unhappiness: The Dark Side of the New Happy Class” says doctors are “Doctors are now medicating unhappiness” as if it were a disease when what they should do was make life changes. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at 2.4 billion drugs prescribed in visits to doctors and hospitals in 2005. Of those, 118 million were for antidepressants, and the next largest number was 133 million for blood pressure. Doctors who take money and gifts from drug companies have been shown as prescribed more of their benefactors drugs, and sometimes questionably so.
