Peter King's article is a must read for doctors. It does not endorse scientology or anti-psychiatry. It simply raises some critical medical issues and promotes the need for doctors to better understand the drugs they prescribe and to be more diligent when prescribing drugs for any illness, disorder or disease. This seems to be particularly true when doctors treat mental illnesses with psychotropic drugs, where ghostwriting and other unethical practices seem to be most prevalent.

There is unquestionably growing evidence that big pharmaceutical companies (Big Pharma) care much more about big profits than citizen health. The greed of Big Pharma is killing people. A January 2011 article in Vanity Fair even describes how clinical trials are being conducted in less privileged countries (than the U.S.) where there is little oversight from the F.D.A.

My tragic personal catastrophic wake up call about the dangers of prescription drugs was in July 2004. After being on the SSRI Paxil for less than 3 weeks, I became severely psychotic and killed my 11-year-old son Ian. My doctor did not tell me any of the side effects that I might experience when I first started taking Paxil. You can read about my family tragedy at www.davidcarmichael.com or watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev3VbZMfCOg

CONGRATULATIONS to Dr. Lucire and the other world leaders mentioned in the article for having the courage to raise such important medical ethical issues and for speaking out about, not against, psychotropic drugs.

If Canadian doctors had a better understanding of these issues, Ian, who would have turned 18 just over a week ago (December 14), would still be alive

The case of • States v. Palazzo, M.D., 558 F.3d 400, 2009 U.S. App. (5th Cir. La., 2009). This case demonstrates how the acquisition of capital has taken over the maintenance of good health.

The idea that Australia is ignoring international health warnings, or to say that Australia is extremely "slow" to react is now becoming more and more apparent. The issue of persons self harming is not new.
Judge Ambrose in (Cassidy) noted upon evidence adduced at trial with respect to a study with a low error rate, that “the incidence of persons on Prozac deliberately self-harming were several times more than people not on antidepressants”.

The next question we should ask is, if political will is slight will (Big Pharma) take advantage of this power vacuum. The regulatory arm of politics in Australia is controlled by the TGA. Are they doing enough to protect people, or are they protecting 'the Bottom line' or "Making a Killing"?

This is not about targeting agencies or groups, what it is about is expanding our knowledge of products that are demonstrating that they are harmful. Confidence in a system is undermined, that is,It is hard to beleive a politician when they argue for the safety of the community when on the other side they allow the actions of Big Pharma to compromise the safety and welfare of all people.

Perhaps current society is facing a number issues similar to those found in ancient societies. It took many years for the Hysteria surrounding witch hunts to subside, the reason was the rulers refused to beleive in "Reason" and "Evidence".

What could be occurring here is Big Pharma may be creating the problem
of Mad and Bad under t he guise of "Health". This guise is promoted by others as the 'pill to cure all ills.' Similar to the historic travelling sales men selling hair tonics and magic formulas to a gullible public.

1.Without Dr. Lucire I would still be having regular hospitalization.
2.A respected psychaitist tried twice to withdraw me from the SSRI's
with very unpleasant results. He referred me to Dr. Lucire for
assessment.
3.Dr. Lucire was never against drugs in general because she used others in the process of my withdrawal. Her original assessment was not walk in the room, you are on SSRI and need no medication. It was a tedious one and half hour assessment.
4. Dr. Lucire said that if after withdrawing she believed I needed medication there are safer drugs that we can try.
5. The SSRI side effects affected not only me but my whole family. Where are the doctors who can see the amazing improvement in me who are frightened to speak up.
6.Dr. Lucire expertise in the field of withdrawal is invaluable.

Psychiatry does not want to look at its problems, so it has to kill the messenger. All this can be resolved if we understand individual genetic differences in metabolism, the solution is on our doorstep. We have data.
Archives of General Psychiatry. 2007;64(10):1123-113.
A Systematic Review of Mortality in Schizophrenia Is the Differential Mortality Gap Worsening Over Time? Sukanta Saha, MSc, MCN; David Chant, PhD; John McGrath, MD, PhD, FRANZCP
Context: Despite improvements in mental health services in recent decades, it is unclear whether the risk of mortality in schizophrenia has changed over time.
Objective: To explore the distribution of standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) for people with schizophrenia.
Data Sources: Broad search terms were used in MEDLINE, PsychINFO, Web of Science, and Google Scholar to identify all studies that investigated mortality in schizophrenia, published between January 1, 1980, and January 31, 2006. References were also identified from review articles, reference lists, and communication with authors.
Study Selection: Population-based studies that reported primary data on deaths in people with schizophrenia.
Data Extraction: Operationalized criteria were used to extract key study features and mortality data.
Data Synthesis: We examined the distribution of Sirs and pooled selected estimates using random-effects meta-analysis. We identified 37 articles drawn from 25 different nations. The median SMR for all persons for all-cause mortality was 2.58 (10%-90% quantile, 1.18 - 5.76), with a corresponding random-effects pooled SMR of 2.50 (95% confidence interval, 2.18 - 2.43). No sex difference was detected.
Suicide was associated with the highest SMR (12.86); however, most of the major causes-of death categories were found to be elevated in people with schizophrenia. The SMRs for all-cause mortality have increased during recent decades (P=. 03).
Conclusions: With respect to mortality, a substantial gap exists between the health of people with schizophrenia and the general community. This differential mortality gap has worsened in recent decades. In light of the potential for second-generation antipsychotic medications to further adversely influence mortality rates in the decades to come, optimizing the general health of people with schizophrenia warrants urgent attention

Psyciatry has problems. Those who read journals know about them.

BRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY (2006), 188, 122 - 127
Schizophrenia, neuroleptic medication and mortality. Matti Joukamaa, Markku Heliovaara, Paul Knekt, Helio Vaara, Arpo Aromaa, Raimo Raitasalo and Ville Lehtinen

Background There is an excess of death from natural causes among people with schizophrenia.

Aims: Schizophrenia and its treatment with neuroleptics were studied for their prediction of mortality in a representative population sample of 7217 Finns aged 530 years.

Method: A comprehensive health examination was carried out at baseline. Schizophrenia was determined using the Present State Examination and previous medical records.

Results: During a 17-year follow-up, 39 of the 99 people with schizophrenia died. Adjusted for age and gender, the relative Mortality risk between those with schizophrenia and others was 2.84 (95% CI 2.06^3.90), and was 2.25 (95%CI 1.61-3.15) after further adjusting for somatic diseases, blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index, smoking, exercise, alcohol intake and education. The number of neuroleptics used at the time of the baseline survey showed a graded relation to mortality. Adjusted for age, gender, somatic diseases and other potential risk factors for premature death, the relative risk was 2.50 (95% CI1.46-4.30) per increment of one neuroleptic.

Conclusions: There is an urgent need to ascertain whether the high mortality in schizophrenia is attributable to the disorder itself or the antipsychotic medication

Why are Australian regulators and doctors suckers for this fraud? Partly, at least, because they kill the messenger.

Google Reverse Gullibility.

Why does Australalia not have a False Claims a ACT and whistleblower rewards instead of whistleblower denigration? Are we so arrogant the we think we know everything? And that there is nothing we do not know? Or cannot learn?
BMJ 2010; 341:c7360 doi: 10.1136/bmj.c7360 (Published 21 December 2010)

News
US drug companies paid $15bn fines for criminal and civil violations over the past five years
Janice Hopkins Tanne

Illegal marketing activities by drug companies have risen over the past five years, leading to major penalties when companies forced to settle with the federal and state governments, says Public Citizen, an independent US watchdog organisation. It has called the drug industry “the biggest defrauder of the federal government.”

Although reports of drug companies’ misdeeds have been reported before, Public Citizen’s new report summarises the situation.

Industry spokespeople said that the problems were behind them and that the industry had put stricter guidelines in place.

Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen’s health research group, told the BMJ that in the past five years the drug industry moved ahead of the defence industry and all other industry sectors in the amount of civil penalties for fraud under the False Claims Act against the federal government. The report said that of 165 drug company settlements comprising $19.8bn (£12.8bn; €15bn) in penalties over the past 20 years, 73% …