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Jimbo
May 21, 2013, 12:39:34 PM5/21/13
to
Brain candy
Dramatic growth in antipsychotic drug use even targets toddlers,
experts say
Monday, May 20, 2013 (Second in a two-part series)
Dr. Dina Panagiotopoulos's investigations into some of the most potent
psychiatric drugs on the market began when other doctors started
calling for help. Could she see a child on an antipsychotic drug who
had developed a potentially lethal condition that can end in a
diabetic coma?
Another child on an antipsychotic was experiencing uncontrollable
twitching and muscle spasms. Still another had returned to her
psychiatrist a year after starting a similar drug, 50 pounds heavier
and almost unrecognizable. In a sign of what experts are calling an
unprecedented spree in the prescribing of mood-altering pills, drugs
once reserved for the floridly psychotic are now being given to
children still in diapers.
According to Panagiotopoulos, a pediatric endocrinologist at BC
Children's Hospital, "second-generation" antipsychotics, or SGAs, are
being prescribed to two-and three-year-olds for aggression. Doctors
have become so used to seeing side effects in children on these drugs
- including sudden and massive weight gain and diabetes - that they no
longer bother reporting them to Health Canada.
"A lot of parents come to me as a specialist and say, 'No one ever
told me about the side effects, and I didn't think to ask,' " said Pan-
agiotopoulos, an associate professor at the University of British
Columbia. They can't understand why their kid went from drinking
water, to seven litres of Coke every week."
There appears to be no limit to how much we're willing to allow
doctors to medicate our apparent psychological angst. Last year, more
than 74 million prescriptions worth $2.6 billion were filled for
psychiatric drugs in Canada - more than 203,000 prescriptions a day,
and up from 58 million prescriptions in total in 2008, according to
data compiled by prescription drug research firm IMS Brogan for
Postmedia News.
The growing embrace of medications to treat "broken" minds is a
triumph of drug company marketing, experts say, the selling of new
diagnoses and overzealous prescribing of pills for conditions for
which they have never been approved. Many of the drugs have been
marketed as more effective and safer than the opiates, barbiturates
and benzodiazepines of the past. But emerging research shows that many
of the newer drugs are no more effective than the ones they unseated,
psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Carlat writes in his book, Unhinged: The
Trouble with Psychiatry - A Doctor's Revelations about a Profession in
Crisis.
What's more, "even our newer drugs' supposed advantage - fewer side
effects - is being called into question," he said. Many
antidepressants are said to work by fixing "chemical imbalances" in
the brain. But no consistent chemical abnormality has ever been found
in the brains of patients with mental disorders, said Dr. Joel Paris,
professor and past chair of the department of psychiatry at McGill
University in Montreal.
Use of some of the heaviest-hitting psychotropic drugs - "atypical,"
or second-generation antipsychotics - is increasing dramatically. One
drug alone, paliperidone, increased in use nearly 30-fold between 2008
and 2012, according to IMS Brogan. Prescriptions for another,
ziprasidone, increased 700 per cent. Antidepressants, meanwhile, have
become so popular, they fit "so neatly into everyday life," that 11
per cent of the U.S. adult population now takes them, Dr. Allen
Frances, professor emeritus at Duke University, writes in his new
book, Saving Normal. In 2002, six per cent of Canadians were on
antidepressants.
Increasingly, people are on not just one drug, but multiple pills,
including pills to chase the side effects of the drugs the doctor
started with, writes Carlat, an associate clinical professor of
psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. The bulk
of the prescribing is being done not by psychiatrists, but by family
doctors, often with little training in their use beyond what drug
sales reps have told them."Pharma did the math," Frances writes.
"There are only 40,000 psychiatrists in the United States (and about
4,100 in Canada) but about 10 times as many PCPs (primary care
physicians). Why not recruit PCPs to write prescriptions for
psychiatric drugs?" The message to doctors, he said, was "loud, clear
and heavily promoted - psychiatric disorders are often missed and easy
to treat with a magic pill ... Who needs a psychiatrist when the
medicine is so safe and easy to use?"
But Paris, of McGill, said even psychiatrists are turning away from
psychological theories and treatments and embracing drug therapy.
"They want to be like other doctors," he said. "They want to make
diagnoses and write prescriptions." Psychotherapy is harder to learn,
he said. It also doesn't pay as well. Increasingly psychiatrists are
performing what Carlat, of Tufts University School of Medicine in
Boston, calls the "15-minute med check," sending patients off with a
pill "and a few words of encouragement."
Nothing is more astounding, Frances and others say, than the growth in
the use of antipsychotics once reserved for obvious psychosis and full-
blown mania. Second-generation antipsychotics are increasingly being
prescribed to children for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder,
"conduct" disorders, "frustration intolerance" and even poor sleep.
The drugs can cause side effects such as elevated blood fats and
abnormal blood sugar levels. As of Dec. 12, 2012, Health Canada had
received 17 fatal reports in children related to SGAs, and, despite
guidelines to doctors, experts say the risks to children are going
largely unmonitored.
Only one of the drugs, aripiprazole, or Abilify, has been approved for
use in children, and only then for schizophrenia in teens aged 15 to
17. At UBC, Panagiotopoulos's research has shown that children
exposed to second-generation antipsychotics have three times the risk
of developing pre-diabetes or Type 2 diabetes compared to children
never treated with the drugs; more than double the risk of becoming
overweight or obese; and 30 times the risk of metabolic syndrome - a
cluster of health problems that increases the risk of heart attack and
stroke later in life.
No one knows what the long-term effects might be on a child's
developing brain. Still, prescriptions for the drugs to children under
14 increased 10-fold in B.C. alone between 1997 and 2007. Across
Canada, from 2005 to 2009, antipsychotic drug prescriptions for
children and youth increased 114 per cent. Surveys suggest that 12 per
cent of all prescriptions are for children aged eight and under.
The drugs, which are being used for symptoms and diagnoses in children
that have never been studied, can cause potentially irreversible
movement disorders if untreated, such as uncontrollable spasms and
tremors, involuntary movements of the jaw and tongue, puckering of the
face, and frowning. In older adults, the drugs have been linked with
an increased risk of sudden cardiac death. Another rare but life-
threatening side effect, neuroleptic malignant syndrome, or NMS, is
fatal in about 10 per cent of cases, said David Gardner, a professor
of psychiatry and pharmacy at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Even
one extra case of fatal NMS is unacceptable, Gardner said, when the
drugs are used simply to calm a distracted child down.
In the United States, drug companies have been fined billions for
promoting antipsychotics for unapproved uses. "The whole drug industry
depends on off-label use," said psychotherapist Gary Greenberg. "It
appears the fine is just the cost of doing business." Panagiotopoulos
said antipsychotics can be life-saving in cases of severe aggression
and behaviour problems.
But there are concerns the drugs have become the default for desperate
parents struggling to get help in a seriously frayed and under-
resourced mental health system. But the concerns don't stop with
antipsychotics: Last year in Canada, nearly 43 million prescriptions
were filled for anti-depressants. Prozac-like drugs and other
antidepressants have proven effective for moderate and severe
depression. But Frances said the motherlode of prescribing is to the
worried well.
Recently, the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care issued new
guidelines for screening for depression that recommend doctors stop
routinely screening people with no obvious symptoms because of the
potential harms, including diagnosing depression where none exists and
putting people on drugs they don't need. Studies have shown that, for
mild depression, the difference between antidepressants and placebo is
so small it's sometimes non-existent.
"The response rate for placebo in mildly disordered people is at least
50 per cent," Frances said in an interview. "The perfect patient for a
drug company is someone who's not too sick to start with, because
they'll get better on their own." For moderate or severe conditions,
the drugs are "remarkably more helpful," he said. All the major drug
categories - antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers such as
lithium - have "radically changed for the positive people's lives,"
added Dr. Roger McIntyre, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at
the University of Toronto. Out of 100 people treated, 30 to 50 per
cent benefit, he said. "I think that's not bad, given how complicated
these illnesses are."
Susan Prins, of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C., said
that when prescribing, doctors are expected to make decisions "based
on well-documented, comprehensive clinical assessments."
"In the event that concerns are identified, the college holds
physicians accountable for those decisions," she wrote in an email.
Paris said doctors should stop all contact with the drug industry and
refuse to attend industry-sponsored "continuing medical education"
events. True mental illness is devastating for those who live with
it, Frances said. "Drugs used well," he writes in Saving Normal, are
"a godsend for the patients helped." But, "It's a ridiculous
marketing ploy that every problem in life is a chemical imbalance," he
said in an interview. "Of course, everything is mediated through the
brain. But that doesn't mean the treatment for it is a pill."
The most prescribed drugs:
Last year, more than 74 million prescriptions were filled for
psychiatric drugs in Canada, up from 58 million in 2008. Here is a
look at the prescription rates for the most prevalent psychiatric
drugs in Canada. (Estimated number of prescriptions dispensed in 2012
and their increase from 2008-2012.)
Anti-depressants:
Citalopram: 7.26 million in 2012, up 25.4%
Venlafaxine: 6.75 million, up 0.27%
Trazodone: 4.06 million, up 49.8%
Escitalopram: 3.24 million, up 275%
Amitriptyline: 3.13 million, up 7.62%
Bupropion: 2.66 million, up 41.7%
Tranquillizers:
Lorazepam: 7.39 million, up 12.7%
Quetiapine: 7.06 million, up 69%
Risperidone: 3.39 million, up 5.89%
Oxazepam: 2.6 million, up 5.22%
Olanzapine: 2.57 million, up 3.57%
Alprazolam: 1.13 million, up 3.62%
Dramatic growth in antipsychotic drug use even targets toddlers,
experts say
Monday, May 20, 2013 (Second in a two-part series)
Dr. Dina Panagiotopoulos's investigations into some of the most potent
psychiatric drugs on the market began when other doctors started
calling for help. Could she see a child on an antipsychotic drug who
had developed a potentially lethal condition that can end in a
diabetic coma?
Another child on an antipsychotic was experiencing uncontrollable
twitching and muscle spasms. Still another had returned to her
psychiatrist a year after starting a similar drug, 50 pounds heavier
and almost unrecognizable. In a sign of what experts are calling an
unprecedented spree in the prescribing of mood-altering pills, drugs
once reserved for the floridly psychotic are now being given to
children still in diapers.
According to Panagiotopoulos, a pediatric endocrinologist at BC
Children's Hospital, "second-generation" antipsychotics, or SGAs, are
being prescribed to two-and three-year-olds for aggression. Doctors
have become so used to seeing side effects in children on these drugs
- including sudden and massive weight gain and diabetes - that they no
longer bother reporting them to Health Canada.
"A lot of parents come to me as a specialist and say, 'No one ever
told me about the side effects, and I didn't think to ask,' " said Pan-
agiotopoulos, an associate professor at the University of British
Columbia. They can't understand why their kid went from drinking
water, to seven litres of Coke every week."
There appears to be no limit to how much we're willing to allow
doctors to medicate our apparent psychological angst. Last year, more
than 74 million prescriptions worth $2.6 billion were filled for
psychiatric drugs in Canada - more than 203,000 prescriptions a day,
and up from 58 million prescriptions in total in 2008, according to
data compiled by prescription drug research firm IMS Brogan for
Postmedia News.
The growing embrace of medications to treat "broken" minds is a
triumph of drug company marketing, experts say, the selling of new
diagnoses and overzealous prescribing of pills for conditions for
which they have never been approved. Many of the drugs have been
marketed as more effective and safer than the opiates, barbiturates
and benzodiazepines of the past. But emerging research shows that many
of the newer drugs are no more effective than the ones they unseated,
psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Carlat writes in his book, Unhinged: The
Trouble with Psychiatry - A Doctor's Revelations about a Profession in
Crisis.
What's more, "even our newer drugs' supposed advantage - fewer side
effects - is being called into question," he said. Many
antidepressants are said to work by fixing "chemical imbalances" in
the brain. But no consistent chemical abnormality has ever been found
in the brains of patients with mental disorders, said Dr. Joel Paris,
professor and past chair of the department of psychiatry at McGill
University in Montreal.
Use of some of the heaviest-hitting psychotropic drugs - "atypical,"
or second-generation antipsychotics - is increasing dramatically. One
drug alone, paliperidone, increased in use nearly 30-fold between 2008
and 2012, according to IMS Brogan. Prescriptions for another,
ziprasidone, increased 700 per cent. Antidepressants, meanwhile, have
become so popular, they fit "so neatly into everyday life," that 11
per cent of the U.S. adult population now takes them, Dr. Allen
Frances, professor emeritus at Duke University, writes in his new
book, Saving Normal. In 2002, six per cent of Canadians were on
antidepressants.
Increasingly, people are on not just one drug, but multiple pills,
including pills to chase the side effects of the drugs the doctor
started with, writes Carlat, an associate clinical professor of
psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. The bulk
of the prescribing is being done not by psychiatrists, but by family
doctors, often with little training in their use beyond what drug
sales reps have told them."Pharma did the math," Frances writes.
"There are only 40,000 psychiatrists in the United States (and about
4,100 in Canada) but about 10 times as many PCPs (primary care
physicians). Why not recruit PCPs to write prescriptions for
psychiatric drugs?" The message to doctors, he said, was "loud, clear
and heavily promoted - psychiatric disorders are often missed and easy
to treat with a magic pill ... Who needs a psychiatrist when the
medicine is so safe and easy to use?"
But Paris, of McGill, said even psychiatrists are turning away from
psychological theories and treatments and embracing drug therapy.
"They want to be like other doctors," he said. "They want to make
diagnoses and write prescriptions." Psychotherapy is harder to learn,
he said. It also doesn't pay as well. Increasingly psychiatrists are
performing what Carlat, of Tufts University School of Medicine in
Boston, calls the "15-minute med check," sending patients off with a
pill "and a few words of encouragement."
Nothing is more astounding, Frances and others say, than the growth in
the use of antipsychotics once reserved for obvious psychosis and full-
blown mania. Second-generation antipsychotics are increasingly being
prescribed to children for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder,
"conduct" disorders, "frustration intolerance" and even poor sleep.
The drugs can cause side effects such as elevated blood fats and
abnormal blood sugar levels. As of Dec. 12, 2012, Health Canada had
received 17 fatal reports in children related to SGAs, and, despite
guidelines to doctors, experts say the risks to children are going
largely unmonitored.
Only one of the drugs, aripiprazole, or Abilify, has been approved for
use in children, and only then for schizophrenia in teens aged 15 to
17. At UBC, Panagiotopoulos's research has shown that children
exposed to second-generation antipsychotics have three times the risk
of developing pre-diabetes or Type 2 diabetes compared to children
never treated with the drugs; more than double the risk of becoming
overweight or obese; and 30 times the risk of metabolic syndrome - a
cluster of health problems that increases the risk of heart attack and
stroke later in life.
No one knows what the long-term effects might be on a child's
developing brain. Still, prescriptions for the drugs to children under
14 increased 10-fold in B.C. alone between 1997 and 2007. Across
Canada, from 2005 to 2009, antipsychotic drug prescriptions for
children and youth increased 114 per cent. Surveys suggest that 12 per
cent of all prescriptions are for children aged eight and under.
The drugs, which are being used for symptoms and diagnoses in children
that have never been studied, can cause potentially irreversible
movement disorders if untreated, such as uncontrollable spasms and
tremors, involuntary movements of the jaw and tongue, puckering of the
face, and frowning. In older adults, the drugs have been linked with
an increased risk of sudden cardiac death. Another rare but life-
threatening side effect, neuroleptic malignant syndrome, or NMS, is
fatal in about 10 per cent of cases, said David Gardner, a professor
of psychiatry and pharmacy at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Even
one extra case of fatal NMS is unacceptable, Gardner said, when the
drugs are used simply to calm a distracted child down.
In the United States, drug companies have been fined billions for
promoting antipsychotics for unapproved uses. "The whole drug industry
depends on off-label use," said psychotherapist Gary Greenberg. "It
appears the fine is just the cost of doing business." Panagiotopoulos
said antipsychotics can be life-saving in cases of severe aggression
and behaviour problems.
But there are concerns the drugs have become the default for desperate
parents struggling to get help in a seriously frayed and under-
resourced mental health system. But the concerns don't stop with
antipsychotics: Last year in Canada, nearly 43 million prescriptions
were filled for anti-depressants. Prozac-like drugs and other
antidepressants have proven effective for moderate and severe
depression. But Frances said the motherlode of prescribing is to the
worried well.
Recently, the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care issued new
guidelines for screening for depression that recommend doctors stop
routinely screening people with no obvious symptoms because of the
potential harms, including diagnosing depression where none exists and
putting people on drugs they don't need. Studies have shown that, for
mild depression, the difference between antidepressants and placebo is
so small it's sometimes non-existent.
"The response rate for placebo in mildly disordered people is at least
50 per cent," Frances said in an interview. "The perfect patient for a
drug company is someone who's not too sick to start with, because
they'll get better on their own." For moderate or severe conditions,
the drugs are "remarkably more helpful," he said. All the major drug
categories - antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers such as
lithium - have "radically changed for the positive people's lives,"
added Dr. Roger McIntyre, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at
the University of Toronto. Out of 100 people treated, 30 to 50 per
cent benefit, he said. "I think that's not bad, given how complicated
these illnesses are."
Susan Prins, of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C., said
that when prescribing, doctors are expected to make decisions "based
on well-documented, comprehensive clinical assessments."
"In the event that concerns are identified, the college holds
physicians accountable for those decisions," she wrote in an email.
Paris said doctors should stop all contact with the drug industry and
refuse to attend industry-sponsored "continuing medical education"
events. True mental illness is devastating for those who live with
it, Frances said. "Drugs used well," he writes in Saving Normal, are
"a godsend for the patients helped." But, "It's a ridiculous
marketing ploy that every problem in life is a chemical imbalance," he
said in an interview. "Of course, everything is mediated through the
brain. But that doesn't mean the treatment for it is a pill."
The most prescribed drugs:
Last year, more than 74 million prescriptions were filled for
psychiatric drugs in Canada, up from 58 million in 2008. Here is a
look at the prescription rates for the most prevalent psychiatric
drugs in Canada. (Estimated number of prescriptions dispensed in 2012
and their increase from 2008-2012.)
Anti-depressants:
Citalopram: 7.26 million in 2012, up 25.4%
Venlafaxine: 6.75 million, up 0.27%
Trazodone: 4.06 million, up 49.8%
Escitalopram: 3.24 million, up 275%
Amitriptyline: 3.13 million, up 7.62%
Bupropion: 2.66 million, up 41.7%
Tranquillizers:
Lorazepam: 7.39 million, up 12.7%
Quetiapine: 7.06 million, up 69%
Risperidone: 3.39 million, up 5.89%
Oxazepam: 2.6 million, up 5.22%
Olanzapine: 2.57 million, up 3.57%
Alprazolam: 1.13 million, up 3.62%
Charlie M. 1958
May 21, 2013, 1:01:18 PM5/21/13
to
On 5/21/2013 11:39 AM, Jimbo wrote:
> Brain candy
On a related note.....
The antidepressant brand Cymbalta has been around for a while, and they
advertise on TV endlessly, talking about sadness and depression. I
always get a kick out how they show depressed folks just laying around,
and then all of a sudden they're all perky and happy looking after
taking Cymbalta.
Well, a couple of nights ago I found myself doing a double-take at the
television. Now they are marketing the same exact drug as a treatment
for chronic pain! What will it be good for next month? ED? PE? This shit
must be better snake oil than anything those hucksters in covered wagons
used to peddle from town to town.
> Brain candy
On a related note.....
The antidepressant brand Cymbalta has been around for a while, and they
advertise on TV endlessly, talking about sadness and depression. I
always get a kick out how they show depressed folks just laying around,
and then all of a sudden they're all perky and happy looking after
taking Cymbalta.
Well, a couple of nights ago I found myself doing a double-take at the
television. Now they are marketing the same exact drug as a treatment
for chronic pain! What will it be good for next month? ED? PE? This shit
must be better snake oil than anything those hucksters in covered wagons
used to peddle from town to town.
Socrates
May 21, 2013, 1:15:04 PM5/21/13
to
my mind goes to Sat Night Live. Commercials offer insight to the
culture. Has anyone seen the new Lincoln commercial where the guy
drives away leaving his girlfriend and her dog at the curb?
--
"Man is always prey to his truths. Once he has admitted them, he cannot
free himself from them."
Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus
Jimbo
May 21, 2013, 1:22:06 PM5/21/13
to
On 21 May, 13:01, "Charlie M. 1958" wrote:
> Well, a couple of nights ago I found myself doing a double-take at the
> television. Now they are marketing the same exact drug as a treatment
> for chronic pain! What will it be good for next month? ED? PE? This shit
> must be better snake oil than anything those hucksters in covered wagons
> used to peddle from town to town.
When I had recurring tumors in my bladder they used a chemo drug
> Well, a couple of nights ago I found myself doing a double-take at the
> television. Now they are marketing the same exact drug as a treatment
> for chronic pain! What will it be good for next month? ED? PE? This shit
> must be better snake oil than anything those hucksters in covered wagons
> used to peddle from town to town.
called BCG. The drug
is put into the bladder with a catheter and then you roll from side to
side to coat the bladder for 2 hours.
The drug strips the membrane from the bladder and burns like hell. I
had a total of 28 treatments over
8 years.
I did some research and it turns out that BCG was developed to
immunize people against TB. I found some studies where they did
experiments on prisioners
to find other used for BCG back in the 70's.
Mark Warner
May 21, 2013, 1:44:36 PM5/21/13
to
accident. Viagra is one example. They were testing the compound for
heart disease or something of that nature, and found out if gave the
subjects woods.
Using anti-depressants to treat chronic pain has been commonplace for
some time, although it may have been done "off label". For some it
works, for most it doesn't. Again, this was found out by doctors
treating depressed patients and also noticing that some of them got some
relief for their pain as a positive side effect. Pharma latched on to
this and is marketing accordingly.
I really hate the way they market drugs to the consumer. It never should
have been allowed. Of course, now I suspect it would be considered
"speech" by Big Pharma.
--
Mark Warner
...lose .inhibitions when replying
Charlie M. 1958
May 21, 2013, 1:52:23 PM5/21/13
to
On 5/21/2013 12:44 PM, Mark Warner wrote:
> I really hate the way they market drugs to the consumer. It never should
> have been allowed. Of course, now I suspect it would be considered
> "speech" by Big Pharma.
>
Not only that, but they market those drugs directly to doctors just as
> I really hate the way they market drugs to the consumer. It never should
> have been allowed. Of course, now I suspect it would be considered
> "speech" by Big Pharma.
>
aggressively, and doctors often end up prescribing them knowing little
more than what the pharmaceutical rep has /told/ them.
Socrates
May 21, 2013, 2:11:42 PM5/21/13
to
On 5/21/2013 10:44 AM, Mark Warner wrote:
> I really hate the way they market drugs to the consumer. It never should
> have been allowed. Of course, now I suspect it would be considered
> "speech" by Big Pharma.
Trust the market.
> I really hate the way they market drugs to the consumer. It never should
> have been allowed. Of course, now I suspect it would be considered
> "speech" by Big Pharma.
Mark Warner
May 21, 2013, 2:44:54 PM5/21/13
to
lamented the fact that today's sales reps were just that -- only sales
reps, rather than the medical sales reps of old that had medical related
degrees/training and actual knowledge of the product's clinical effects.
When my mom was practicing, she depended on these old school medical
reps to keep her abreast of the new medicines that were coming
available. And no, she never got any trips to Hawaii or "consulting
fees" or any of that shit, either. Things are just different now.
Jimbo
May 21, 2013, 3:48:54 PM5/21/13
to
On 21 May, 13:44, Mark Warner wrote:
> I really hate the way they market drugs to the consumer. It never should
> have been allowed. Of course, now I suspect it would be considered
> "speech" by Big Pharma.
In Canada we don't allow direct ads to the consumer and in some
> I really hate the way they market drugs to the consumer. It never should
> have been allowed. Of course, now I suspect it would be considered
> "speech" by Big Pharma.
Provinces the
Doctor writing scripts cannot hold stock in the company who's product
he is prescribing.
JoeRaisin
May 21, 2013, 6:58:39 PM5/21/13
to
On 5/21/2013 1:15 PM, Socrates wrote:
> On 5/21/2013 10:01 AM, Charlie M. 1958 wrote:
>> On 5/21/2013 11:39 AM, Jimbo wrote:
>>> Brain candy
>>
>> On a related note.....
>>
>> The antidepressant brand Cymbalta has been around for a while, and they
>> advertise on TV endlessly, talking about sadness and depression. I
>> always get a kick out how they show depressed folks just laying around,
>> and then all of a sudden they're all perky and happy looking after
>> taking Cymbalta.
>>
>> Well, a couple of nights ago I found myself doing a double-take at the
>> television. Now they are marketing the same exact drug as a treatment
>> for chronic pain! What will it be good for next month? ED? PE? This shit
>> must be better snake oil than anything those hucksters in covered wagons
>> used to peddle from town to town.
>
> When these commercials get around to the side effects, for some reason
> my mind goes to Sat Night Live. Commercials offer insight to the
> culture. Has anyone seen the new Lincoln commercial where the guy
> drives away leaving his girlfriend and her dog at the curb?
>
>
>
Just did - thanks
> On 5/21/2013 10:01 AM, Charlie M. 1958 wrote:
>> On 5/21/2013 11:39 AM, Jimbo wrote:
>>> Brain candy
>>
>> On a related note.....
>>
>> The antidepressant brand Cymbalta has been around for a while, and they
>> advertise on TV endlessly, talking about sadness and depression. I
>> always get a kick out how they show depressed folks just laying around,
>> and then all of a sudden they're all perky and happy looking after
>> taking Cymbalta.
>>
>> Well, a couple of nights ago I found myself doing a double-take at the
>> television. Now they are marketing the same exact drug as a treatment
>> for chronic pain! What will it be good for next month? ED? PE? This shit
>> must be better snake oil than anything those hucksters in covered wagons
>> used to peddle from town to town.
>
> When these commercials get around to the side effects, for some reason
> my mind goes to Sat Night Live. Commercials offer insight to the
> culture. Has anyone seen the new Lincoln commercial where the guy
> drives away leaving his girlfriend and her dog at the curb?
>
>
>
http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7Zrz/2013-lincoln-mkz-dog
Sister.Lyndi
May 22, 2013, 9:40:57 PM5/22/13
to
fine nurse.
I miss her.
S. Lyndi
Skeezix LaRocca
May 23, 2013, 3:37:07 PM5/23/13
to
On 05/21/2013 03:48 PM, Jimbo wrote:
>
> In Canada we don't allow direct ads to the consumer and in some
> Provinces the
> Doctor writing scripts cannot hold stock in the company who's product
> he is prescribing.
Now that makes a lot of sense.
>
> In Canada we don't allow direct ads to the consumer and in some
> Provinces the
> Doctor writing scripts cannot hold stock in the company who's product
> he is prescribing.
--
Dr. Skeezix LaRocca, D.B. (Doctor Of Buffoonery)
Registered Linux Novice & Abuser #526706
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Jimbo
May 23, 2013, 3:46:24 PM5/23/13
to
On 23 May, 15:37, Skeezix LaRocca wrote:
> Now that makes a lot of sense.
Ya but it's still way too complicated for your Gov't.
> Now that makes a lot of sense.
All of our drug plans are now on computer and the Gov't runs scans to
pick out improper use and multiple
scripts.
On the first run they found 12,000 people with 2 or more scripts for
the same drug. Over 600 of them had multiple methadone
scripts. Sell one, use one.
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