Archives for articles tagged "drug-companies"

Researchers from the U.K., U.S. and Canada analyzed results for fluoxetine (better known by the brand name Prozac), venlafaxine (Effexor), nefazodone (Serzone) and paroxetine (Paxil or Seroxat) – all members of a class of drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). The researchers’ paper, published this week in the journal PLoS Medicine, claims that only patients who are diagnosed “at the upper end of the very severely depressed category” get any meaningful benefit from the widely prescribed drugs. For the others, the paper says, antidepressants are barely more effective than a placebo (although patients suffering from depression, like those suffering from chronic pain, generally do see a substantial placebo benefit).

“I had a kind of epiphany,” said Carlat, also on the faculty of the Tufts University School of Medicine. “I realized the obvious — that I was being paid to say good things about drugs, regardless of what my actual opinions were.”

He not only walked away from the extra money and perks, he resolved to fight what he saw as an increasingly pernicious influence on psychiatric practice.

These days, operating from an old brick building in this quaint seaside town, he sees patients and puts out The Carlat Psychiatry Report, a monthly newsletter on psychiatric developments that aims to be more aggressively free of drug-company influence than any other, from its content to the financial ties of its writers.

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