Big Pharma

Dec

2018

The Scientific Method and Psychiatry

Psychiatry: Claims to be a science.

In talking to people in general, the feeling is that for the most part psychiatry is benign. The understood purpose is to help people that are dealing with anything from ADHD to Depression to Psychosis.

Automobile Seat Belts - An Analogy

Normally, when one sets out to fix something, they would measure adequately to know if the results warranted continuing.

The Problem:

For example, let’s take car fatalities. Years ago, in the 1950s and 1960s, seatbelts were not mandatory. A lot of people were severely injured or died as a result.

The Results:

In 1968 seat belts were made mandatory for all cars in the USA. From there, mandatory use followed in all states and Canada. Took a few years but….

Resulting Statistics:

Here is a reference from the Journal of The Royal Society of Medicine showing the before and after statistics of injuries and deaths with respect to seatbelts:

“The number of those who escaped injury increased by 40% and those with mild and moderate injuries decreased by 35% after seatbelt legislation. There was a significant reduction in soft tissue injuries to the head.”
February 1990"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1292501/

A 40% reduction in deaths is a significant reason to continue to enforce the use of seat belts.

What about Big Pharma and Psychiatry

Big Pharma and the psychiatric industry market depression drugs like Zoloft, Lexapro, Prozac and Cymbalta which if you think about it, should result in far few people being depressed. The result of that would be fewer suicides. One would think.

The problem with the psychiatric industry is that the ‘solutions’ they use mask or bury the problem. An active child that the parents don’t have time for: put him on a drug that quiets him. Turns him or her (usually him) into a zombie and mom and dad who don’t really have time to deal with the noise of their child, are happy because said child is quiet and not in their hair. Thus, Mom and Dad are convinced of the success of the drug.

Here is how it should work. There is such as thing as the Scientific Method. It is the logical, agreed upon procedure for figuring ‘stuff’ out.

Some definitions:

Science:(Definition) A fact in science is when some happens the same every time in the same set of circumstances. (definition.org)

Science: (Definition): a branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws.

Science(Definition): The intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment. Oxford Dictionary

So, we want facts and truths. Simple, right?

The Scientific Method:

The steps of the scientific method go something like this:

1. Make an observation or observations.
2. Ask questions about the observations and gather information.
3. Form a hypothesis — a tentative description of what's been observed, and make predictions based on that hypothesis.
4. Test the hypothesis and predictions in an experiment that can be reproduced.
5. Analyze the data and draw conclusions; accept or reject the hypothesis or modify the hypothesis if necessary.
6. Reproduce the experiment until there are no discrepancies between observations and theory. "Replication of methods and results is my favorite step in the scientific method," Moshe Pritsker, a former post-doctoral researcher at Harvard Medical School and CEO of JoVE, told Live Science. "The reproducibility of published experiments is the foundation of science. No reproducibility – no science.”

Taking the car/seat belt example from above, the Scientific Method applied properly saved countless lives.

Insulated Winter Boots - Another Analogy

If one were running a business; let’s say making high quality insulated winter boots. If they kept people feet warm, they would be successful. If 80% of the time, they did not keep people’s feet warm, it is very likely that people would stop buying them.

So, using this analogy, let’s say the marketing was good but as time went on more and more people were using these ‘wonder boots’. But more and more people were walking about with freezing feet and getting frostbite and worse but the boot people marketing would just tell them they need more of these boots. A second pair or change to another pair of boots that are also not properly insulated but, what the hell, we are making a bundle of money, so who cares. Then the boot manufacturers lobby the government representatives and get laws passed that enforce people to wear these boots. They get papers written on how effective these boots are.

People still have cold feet. So, now they convince the people with cold feet that it is their problem and not a problem with the boots. Tell them how they are mentally blocking their feet from getting warm.

Not very good Scientific Method. The solution would be to make a boot that worked. Use that method to actually make a boot that kept your feet warm.

So, what of the Pharmaceutical Industry and psychiatry. One would assume they have done adequate testing on their drugs and various techniques and procedures. Maybe, maybe not.

Let us take depression stats as example. Psychiatry and Big Pharma have been pushing this one hard for a number of years and pumping various anti-depression drugs into their US the rest of the world for years now.

The Results:

Per the CDC https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/suicide/index.html

“… The incidence of suicide increased 30% from 1999 to 2016.”

And concurrent with the increase in suicides:

In the UK: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jun/29/nhs-prescribed-record-number-of-antidepressants-last-year

“The total number of prescriptions dispensed has risen 46.8% in the last 10 years, from 752m items in 2006 to 1.1bn last year. The average number of items prescribed for each person has gone up …”

In the USA:

“The rate of antidepressant use in the United States increased nearly 400 percent over the last two decades, according to a report released Oct. 19.”
https://psychcentral.com/news/2011/10/25/antidepressant-use-up-400-percent-in-us/30677.html

These drugs are supposed to make things better. But, if I’m to line up these two preceding facts, I should get a bit worried. The rate of suicides follows the rate of increased use of anti-depressants.

A comment on psychiatry’s use of The Scientific Method:

“…it ignores much of the genuine science there is and goes on supporting and perpetuating concepts and treatments that have little scientific support.”
By Sami Timimi, MD from madinamerica.com
https://www.madinamerica.com/2018/01/the-scientism-of-psychiatry/

And from same article, Dr Timimi shows more of the total lack of Scientific Method. Giving the example of ADHD he clearly points out that diagnosing this so called disease has absolutely nothing to do with science:

  “Consider the following example: If I were to ask the question “what is ADHD?” it is not possible for me to answer that question by reference to a particular known pathological abnormality. Instead I will have to provide a description, such as ADHD is the presence of the behaviours of hyperactivity, impulsivity, and poor attention (plus a few extra qualifiers such as age of onset). Contrast this with asking the question “what is diabetes?” If I were to answer this question in the same manner by just describing symptoms such as needing to urinate excessively, thirst and fatigue, I could be in deep trouble as a medical practitioner as there are plenty of other conditions that may initially present with these symptoms and diabetes itself may not present with these symptoms in a recognizable way. In order to answer the question “what is diabetes?” I have to refer to its pathology involving abnormalities of sugar metabolism. I would get independent (to my subjective opinion) empirical data to support my hypothesis about what may be causing the patient’s described experiences (such as testing the urine and/or blood for levels of glucose). In the rest of medicine, therefore, my diagnosis explains and has some causal connection with the behaviours/symptoms that are described. Diagnosis in that context sits in a ‘technical’ explanatory framework. In psychiatry, what we are calling diagnosis (such as ADHD) will only describe but is unable to explain”.

This is only one example, where, in psychiatry there is no standard response or technique. There is no Scientific Method applied to issues like depression or ADHD. If it was applied then it would follow that there would be fewer and fewer people depressed and fewer and fewer suicides. But the opposite is happening. Make it as complicated as you want. All of the obfuscation in the world doesn’t change the fact that these drugs are making things worse.

When confronted with information like above, a Big Pharma representative will likely tell you “…it is more complicated than that…”. They will try and ‘baffle you with bullshit’. Answers are generally simple. Even for big issues. It is not really complicated.

If you are applying a solution to a problem and that problem gets worse, then stop for god’s sake! Big Pharma and the psychiatric industry are driving the suicide rate out the roof.

A real test would be to stop feeding people drugs like Prozac, Ritalin and Zoloft and watch depression and suicides plummet.

So why, then, to people consider psychiatry a science?

Nov

2017

The Myth of the Chemical Imbalance in Your Brain

Every year or two, one sees in the media somewhere headlines akin to this:

“Scientists on the verge of confirming brain chemical imbalance causing depression!”

Or some such trite. Or they will make the wording such that one thinks it is a done deal when, really, there never has been any confirmation or proof. But by wording these headlines a certain way and making sure it comes from multiple sources, it becomes ‘TRUTH’ (but really nothing but an Urban Legend).

I’ll send you $100.00 if you send me hard evidence that there is scientific evidence of chemical imbalance causing depression.

Even the online magazine “Psychology Today” discounts the theory of Chemical Imbalance.

This quote from an article in the above magazine by Mark L Ruffalo:

Having practiced psychotherapy now for nearly a decade, I continue to be amazed by the number of patients who come in and claim to have a chemical imbalance in their brain. Not only is the chemical imbalance theory of mental disorder unsubstantiated by any empirical research, but it has also been widely and publicly refuted by a number of prominent psychiatrists, like Allen Frances and Ronald Pies above. In fact, I have found that the most militant proponents of the chemical imbalance idea to be nonpsychiatrists—like social workers and clinical psychologists—who cling to the theory as a way of validating their status as "health professionals.”

Psychology Today - Chemical Imbalance

My favourite line this article is this:

“The chemical imbalance theory offers something else, however, and that is the opportunity for the psychiatric patient to limit responsibility for his condition.”

If a person has some ‘condition’ that is ‘not their fault’, then it justifies all sorts of things. Do drugs with impunity. “I have a physical ailment that I have to take drugs for.”

Who promotes this sort of thing? Who benefits from this? This basic idea of “I’m not responsible.” allows people to be on drugs at the workplace costing a country like the US of A billions of wasted dollars. Between the money that goes into the pockets of Big Pharma and the inefficiency caused by so many people doing drugs, I think if the terrorists were smart, they would let American just destroy itself. If these terrorists that the American government was so worried about would just finance broader application and use of drugs for depression and help finance marketing of the ‘Chemical Imbalance’ idea, then they(the terrorists) could just sit back and watch the country die.

Big Pharma is way more effective at destroying and terrorizing the USA than the Al Qaeda will ever be.

Oct

2017

Big Pharma Owns You!

I'm tempted to copy and paste this whole article as I want it to be here as permanently as possible. I'm amazed that this one has been up a whole week already. These evil men and women from Big Pharma create more havoc and strife and grief on the American people in a month than all the terrorists in history put together. The death toll is staggering.

Almost 60,000 children in the USA alone visit emergency hospital rooms each year due to accidental overdoses. (promises.com) The information on this website is largely taken from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) How many children die or don't bother going? Child gun accidents and injuries are nowhere close to this. You never hear the end of it if a child gets injured by a gun but if 100 die or are injured by 'accidental' overdose it is never reported. Why? Why not? Misdirection maybe.

Try and hold Big Pharma accountable...No Way!! They are making far too much money and spread it around in the right places. This is an decent article on the corrupt system and how Big Pharma controls the media and pretty much controls and influences how the American people think.

Big Pharma owns Corporate America and YOU!

"According to a 2009 study by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, with the exception of CBS every major media outlet in the United States shares at least one board member with at least one drug company. Let me put it in perspective for you, these board members wake up, they go to a meeting at Merck or Pfizer, and then they have their driver take them over to a meeting with NBC to decide what kind of programming that network is going to air. For those board members who aren’t pulling double duty with a media conglomerate and a big drug company, they still understand that they can’t be honest and objective about big pharma because big pharma pays their bills." (...more here)

It sometimes amazes me how people get conned by all this. Then I think how constantly overwhelming and insidious it is. If you don't believe that you are somewhat 'brainwashed' by the media, try something:

Go for one month:

Don't watch any news or ads on TV. That will be nigh impossible for sports fans.
No news on the radio.
Refuse to click on any news item on Facebook or any other social media.
Don't even look at a newspaper. Unless it is to do the crossword puzzle or sudoku.
Magazines - well, if you read one, you are going to see ads from Big Pharma.

I doubt one in a hundred people could do this for a month but if you can...then see if your view on life is any different. Anyone that I have encountered that has done this has become a much more alive and less depressed person.

There was a book written years ago called 1984 by George Orwell. Many people know the phrase "Big Brother". That is the book that it came from. I found the book kind of dry but prophetic nonetheless. The whole idea of books like this and Huxley's 'Brave New World' were to predict and warn against such a dark future and hopefully prevent it from happening. No such luck. Maybe we could be calling Big Pharma 'Big Brother' instead.

“Until they became conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.” from George Orwell's 1984

So, read this article about Big Pharma and the money trail and see if it helps you become conscious.

Jan

2016

Big Pharma Causing Suicide?

Jan

2016

Lies from Big Pharma, The FDA and psychiatry!

Great article on some of the falsehoods propagated by the pharmaceutical industry. Fourteen myths that we have been told over and over now properly debunked.

" Myth # 1:
“The FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) tests all new psychiatric drugs”

False. Actually the FDA only reviews studies that were designed, administered, secretly performed and paid for by the multinational profit-driven drug companies. The studies are frequently farmed out by the pharmaceutical companies by well-paid research firms, in whose interest it is to find positive results for their corporate employers. Unsurprisingly, such research policies virtually guarantee fraudulent results."

Read the rest here:

http://www.madinamerica.com/2016/01/duty-to-warn-14-lies-that-our-psychiatry-professors-in-medical-school-taught-us/