Making science a reality #HoleOusia

Making science a reality on Hole Ousia website:

"It has been a long time since I last wrote on Hole Ousia about my activism for a science that strives for objectivity.

It is probably reasonable to suggest that no other in the British Isles has given more to this cause than I have.

I petitioned the Scottish Parliament to consider introducing a Sunshine Act for Scotland. Much evidence was gathered for this petition and this was then shared in a formal public consultation.

The Scottish public agreed, in majority, that payments from the pharmaceutical industry and device makers to healthcare professionals need to be declared on a mandatory basis. At the time, this landmark consultation was neither reported in the mainstream press nor the medical press. A year on the Scottish Government has provided no meaningful update.

It was thus with considerable interest that I read the following editorial in the current British Medical Journal:

The full article can be accessed here from the BMJ:










Open and transparent from omphalos on Vimeo.

Is this trial misreported? Truth seeking in the burgeoning age of trial transparency #BMJ 24Oct16

BMJ 2016;355:i5543 

USA Prof Stephen Stahl #Lurasidone #Schizophrenia & Profiteering in Dundee 18Nov16

It's all about the money: greed Greed GREED and Big Pharma:

13 September 2015: Stephen Stahl: $3,581,159 in payments from Pharma

7 October 2015: Lurasidone – financial conflicts of interest

8 October 2015: “A robust learning environment for healthcare professionals”

'No “breakthrough” in Alzheimer’s disease' Aug16 #BMJ #LMTX #TauRx

'No “breakthrough” in Alzheimer’s disease' BMJ Feature
"The trial results were disappointing so why did some of the media call the drug LMTX revolutionary?"
Jacqui Wise journalist, London, UK
BMJ 2016;354:i4474 (Published 16 August 2016)

Dr. Peter Gøtzsche: Forced Psychiatric Treatment Must be Abolished

Making the Case Against Antidepressants @UKParliament Robert Whitaker 11May16

Making the Case Against Antidepressants in Parliament: Robert Whitaker, Mad in America, 10 May 2016

"On Wednesday, May 11, there will be an inquiry by a work group in the U.K.’s Parliament into whether increases in the prescribing of antidepressants are fueling a marked increase in disability due to anxiety and depression in the U.K.  I wrote about a similar rise in disability in the United States in Anatomy of an Epidemic, and the All Party Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence, which is the Parliamentary group that organized the debate, asked me to present the case against antidepressants.

I don’t now where this will lead, but it is encouraging to see this debate rising to the level of a work group in Parliament.

The effort to organize this session was led by Luke Montagu, whose father is a member of the House of Lords. He has publicly told of his having been incapacitated by psychiatric drugs and their withdrawal effects, with his entry into the world of psychiatry coming when he was prescribed Prozac after having a bad reaction to a sinus operation. Together with James Davies, a psychotherapist and medical anthropologist who authored Cracked (a really good “critical psychiatry” book), he created the Council for Evidence Based Psychiatry in the United Kingdom. As the name suggests, they believe that a close examination of the scientific literature reveals that psychiatric drugs, on the whole, do more harm than good, and that the use of these drugs needs to be rethought.

For me, the invitation to present to the work group provided a nice opportunity to update the case against antidepressants that I made in Anatomy of an Epidemic. The slides that I will present on Wednesday are attached here. ..."

Read complete article

Northern Clinical Update in Depression event 13May16 Newcastle #Lundbeck @rcpsych @ABPI_UK