Further to my article Prozac, Seroxat, Effexor and Serzone, do they work? and the follow-up NLP, Alternative Therapies against Antidepressants, the British Guardian newspaper published an article titled “Drug firms face new laws on test results“.
I heard about this article whilst listening to the BBC Radio Five Live breakfast program, just a few words as they reviewed the morning’s newspapers, and they inferred that the British Government would be bringing in new laws requiring drug companies to publish ALL research results from clinical trials.
The article did not say that. What it did say is :-
“The health minister Dawn Primarolo will tell MPs (Members of Parliament, the British Government) that new legislation will be introduced by the end of the year to ensure drugs companies pass on results of clinical trials as soon as the alarm is raised about one of their medicines.”
and that
“The minister will announce that new legislation will be introduced by the end of the year placing a greater obligation on companies to disclose results of trials.”
Note the words “a greater obligation“, they infer, that a drug company only has to inform the British Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA), when there is a problem.
This action resulted from the antidepressant Seroxat, produced by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), where GSK had identified two problems in about 1998, being :-
1. There was a higher risk of suicidal behaviour among under 18’s using Seroxat rather than a placebo.
2. The antidepressant drug Seroxat was ineffective in dealing with depressive illness among under 18s.
It took until 2003 until the MHRA announced that doctors should not give Seroxat to the under 18’s.
The newspaper article goes on to say that in the USA, and agreement was made by GSK to publish ALL its’ trial results, available to the public, whether negative or positive.
How do we know, or in fact the prescribing doctors know, what these drugs are doing to us, what side-effects they are having?
what are these drugs are doing to us?
Perhaps alternative therapies, even if they are from the placebo effect, are better for us. (see www.nlpnow.net)
And come on Radio Five Live, do not twist an article to say what you want it to.
See article It is how you interpret what your modalities give you.