Big Pharma Makes You Crazy

The law of diminishing returns

This documentary says it all. It is something I have a discussed in a number of my pieces on Medium. But I came across this on YouTube and felt it needed to be shared.

Not only are these psychiatric drugs, used in treating, anxiety, depression or psychosis, highly addictive, they may often compound the issues that sent the person hurrying to the doctor in the first place. The pathological effects of drugs may occur while they are still being taken or during withdrawal. The withdrawal effects of these drugs, such as pregabalin, can take years to subside.

These drugs should only be prescribed in a minority of cases, when all other forms of psycho-social therapy have failed. Even then, the drug should be discontinued after a few weeks and replaced by other types of treatment, and psycho-social interventions. I know of no drug, be it street or medically prescribed, that doesn’t follow the law of diminishing returns. Any therapeutic efficacy will take place in the first few weeks before dropping off. At best they will be become ineffectual (although the person will now be addicted); at worst they may produce a whole array of adverse effects from anxiety and suicidal ideation to sexual dysfunction, obesity and diabetes. The list goes on.

Many doctors will never admit that the medication itself is the problem. If the drug isn’t working they will advise increasing the dose or switching to a more potent brand. The prescribing of medication for an increasing number of mental health issues is never seen as the fundamental problem.

Psychiatrists and academics are often paid huge amounts of money by drug companies to put their message across. Big Pharma funds the majority of drug testing. These results are often skewed in favour of the drug. They will cherry pick the information that is published that favours the drug being marketed; or suppress any test results that are negative. We are misinformed. We are lied to.

On many occasions, drug companies are discovered and fined for their illegal behaviour, including the practice of disinformation. But these fines are normally a drop in the ocean compared to the profits they are making. For the company it is just a consequence of doing business. They just pay up, shrug it off, and carry on as before.

The health of a nation is too important to be left solely in the hands of private business. The amount of money being made inevitably leads to corruption. There should be system of checks and balances with fully independent regulators examining the whole process of research and development, drug testing, marketing and promoting.

My own view is that it should be removed from private business completely, and placed in the hands of public ownership. Medicine by the people, for the people. The health of a nation should never be exploited by a few greedy, amoral capitalists to make obscene amounts of money. It is unethical. It is wrong.

But watch this video, read my other pieces, better still, read something by Robert Whitaker, and make up your own mind.

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