Post By Becca Trabin: Beware the Mental Health Adicle
The New York Times reports this week on the potential increase of what I like to call adicles. Adicles are what happens when journalists accept gifts or slanted information from pharmaceutical companies and then produce biased, pro-Pharma news articles. According to the NY Times:
Journalism awards consisting of cash prizes and all-expense-paid trips given out by drug companies are among the more “astonishing” financial ties between journalists and drug companies, the authors [of British Medical Journal] said.
Among the prizes cited are the Embrace Award for reporting on urinary incontinence — consisting of trips to Washington, D.C., and Paris — offered by pharmaceutical firms Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim, as well as another Eli Lilly award for cancer treatment stories that includes a weeklong international trip for two.
The authors also point a finger at journalism training and education programs sponsored by the health care industry and to professorships funded by drug company grants. The writers go on to criticize reporters’ reliance on drug company press officers for referrals to experts or to patients, whose views may have been carefully screened.
In the mental health realm, you can spot potential adicles by the ease with which the author points to the use of pharmaceutical drugs as the solution to mental health problems, especially for children. Here’s an example of a Pharma/science/news hybrid entitled “Therapy plus Zoloft helps kids with anxiety”:
A popular antidepressant plus three months of psychotherapy dramatically helped children with anxiety disorders, the most common psychiatric illnesses in kids, the biggest study of its kind found.
The research also offers comfort to parents worried about putting their child on powerful drugs — therapy alone did a lot of good, too.
Combining the drug sertraline, available as a generic and under the brand name Zoloft, with therapy worked best. But each method alone also had big benefits, said Dr. John Walkup [pictured], lead author of the government-funded research. It’s estimated that anxiety disorders affect as many as 20 percent of U.S. children and teens.
Although the opening paragraphs state that the study was funded by the government (NIMH), it also says at the very bottom,
Several study authors reported receiving consulting fees or other compensation from drug companies, including antidepressant makers.
Furthermore, the seeming fairness of pointing out that therapy alone (actually, CBT) “did a lot of good, too” is countered by the fact that a mysterious estimate is included that one-fifth of all children have anxiety disorders. 20% of kids would benefit from some form of Zoloft!
If, on the one hand, doctors and researchers are in a diagnostic frenzy, the press in this instance is tacitly approving. On the other hand, if 20% of kids in the US really are impaired by serious anxiety, then it’s probably disadvantageous to society as whole for them to be taught from an early age that their anxieties are so internally created that they require chemical adjustments.
If corporations and medical professionals have a financial stake in selling soma (a la Huxley) to kids, it’s the responsibility of journalists to fully present the situation as such. Beware the adicles that tell you otherwise.
liz | 10:24 AM | Uncategorized
If You Think My Blog Is Boring Sometimes…
This is probably the worst idea for a live-blog I’ve ever heard: live-blogging Thanksgiving!
For the next 24 hours (give or take some time to sleep and change the baby) I’ll be blogging about my Thanksgiving preparation and final execution. If my turkey (or in this case, turkeys) ends up dry, you’ll know about it.
Holy shit. The New York Times has reached a new low. No wonder they’re cool with their layoffs.
I have a friend visiting from Italy. He doesn’t speak much English and io non parlo much italiano, ma we do speak Spanish together, sort of. He’s never been to the U.S. and has never had a Thanksgiving with any trimmings, let alone all of them. Above is a photo of him drinking from a large glass of wine while a drunk man leans against him. That’s how it is in Italy, you know?
Despite the fascinating linguistic and alcoholic possibilities, I will NOT be live-blogging Thanksgiving. Even here at PW, we have limits.
Live Thanksgiving Blog: Let the Games Begin
liz | 1:52 PM | Uncategorized
Depression Confession: Rachel Maddow
My crush on Rachel Maddow grows each day. As if the Ph.D. and left-wing passion weren’t enough, Newsweek reports:
Maddow’s achievements do not always come easily. What only those close to her know is that she has suffered from cyclical depression since puberty that, she says, you can set your watch by. At her lowest points, she loses her sense of smell: “It’s a warning sign that like, ‘Oh, I’m not going to be able to live with myself for the next 48 hours’. It’s weird.”
What cracks me up about Newsweek is sentences like the one bolded above. It’s kinda like that whole thing of what-only-those-in-our-offices-know-is-50,000-words-of-really-important-stuff.
liz | 12:14 PM | Uncategorized
I Don’t Think Amy Winehouse Is Going to Make It
Isn’t she just the saddest case? A seriously disturbed young woman who I just can’t see living past 30. I know it’s a terrible thing to say, but I don’t get the sense that she’s getting appropriate psychiatric care or substance abuse counseling, and without either one, her physical condition continues to deteriorate.
And the thing is, she’s a nice person. Look how kind she is to her fans from Liverpool. (Click on video to watch.)
I mean, I love this woman. I want the best for her. What can we do?
liz | 2:20 PM | Uncategorized
Cute Fix: This Made Me Laugh Out Loud Because I’m an Idiot
liz | 12:07 PM | Uncategorized
How You Know You’re Working Too Hard
Last night I had a dream about Dr. Biederman (pictured) and about the blog Furious Seasons. I was waving a printout of a blog post in the air, trying to convince people that Biederman was, indeed, evil and had caused considerable damage to children who were misdiagnosed and doped with Risperdal unnecessarily. The people included an old friend who’s a psychologist and my parents.
And we were on a roller coaster.
Here’s what I was waving in the air:
Harvard Child Psychiatrist Worked Closely With J&J
And here’s the latest of Philip’s posts that I could print out and ride a roller coaster with:
J&J Called Clinical Trials Of Psychiatric Drugs For Kids “Growth Opportunities”
Obviously, I’m very upset by these revelations.
liz | 10:37 AM | Uncategorized
Why Can’t I Get the Brain Worm Story Out of My Head?
Oh, the pun opportunities are endless… For some reason, I’ve been telling everyone about this story and the video.
liz | 4:28 PM | Uncategorized
Do Not Come to Me Asking Why I Don’t Suppor Bipolar Diagnosis in Kids
Because I simply won’t be answering that bullshit fucking question anymore. I am pissed!!!!!
From last week’s NYT:
Powerful antipsychotic medicines are being used far too cavalierly in children, and federal drug regulators must do more to warn doctors of their substantial risks, a panel of federal drug experts said Tuesday.
More than 389,000 children and teenagers were treated last year with Risperdal, one of five popular medicines known as atypical antipsychotics. Of those patients, 240,000 were 12 or younger, according to data presented to the committee. In many cases, the drug was prescribed to treat attention deficit disorders.
But Risperdal is not approved for attention deficit problems, and its risks — which include substantial weight gain, metabolic disorders and muscular tics that can be permanent — are too profound to justify its use in treating such disorders, panel members said.
From this week’s:
But e-mails and internal documents from Johnson & Johnson made public in a court filing reveal that Dr. Biederman pushed the company to fund a research center at Massachusetts General Hospital whose goal was “to move forward the commercial goals of J&J,” the documents state. ….
Dr. Biederman’s work helped to fuel a 40-fold increase from 1994 to 2003 in the diagnosis of pediatric bipolar disorder and a rapid rise in the use of powerful, risky and expensive antipsychotic medicines in children. Although many of his studies are small and often financed by drug makers, Dr. Biederman has had a vast influence on the field largely because of his position at one of the most prestigious medical institutions in the world.
Johnson & Johnson manufactures Risperdal, also known as risperidone, a popular antipsychotic medicine. More than a quarter of Risperdal’s use is in children and adolescents.
J&J Backed Child Psychiatry Institute to Support Risperdal Sales
liz | 2:53 PM | Uncategorized
Public Suicide: Monday-Morning Quarterbacking
A young man (pictured) told viewers of his webcam that he was going to kill himself. People watched him. Calls to the police were very late. Excerpts from ABC News, via IfYou’reGoingThroughHellKeepGoing:
A Florida teenager who used a webcam to live-stream his suicide Wednesday was reportedly encouraged by other people on the Web site, authorities told ABCNews.com.
“People were egging him on and saying things like ‘go ahead and do it, faggot,’ said Wendy Crane, an investigator at the Broward County Medical Examiner’s office.
Abraham Biggs, 19, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., had been blogging on an online body-building message board and had linked to his page on Justin.tv, a live video streaming Web site, where the camera rolled as he overdosed on prescription pills, according to Crane.
Biggs, who had reportedly been discussing his suicide on the forums, also posted a suicide note on a body-building forum, which has since been taken down, in which he wrote, “I hate myself and I hate living.”
“I have let everyone down and I feel as though I will never change or never improve,” Biggs wrote in the posting. “I am in love with a girl and I know that I am not good enough for her. I have come to believe that my life has all been meaningless. I keep trying and I keep failing. I have thought about and attempted suicide many times in the past.”
The video and blog postings have since been removed from the sites, but Crane, who has seen both, said that at first viewers thought the suicide was a hoax.
“The bloggers said that Biggs had threatened to kill himself before and had faked it, so at first they didn’t believe him,” said Crane.
Here’s the first problem — the conflation of appearance and reality online. Another: the Boy Who Cried Wolf scenario. How many times have even family members of people with mental illnesses struggled with the latter? You’re constantly told the person will commit suicide, but despite all the pain and ideation, it doesn’t happen. It’s hard to keep constant danger in mind, especially if you only know someone online.
On a blog where Biggs wrote about his suicidal thoughts, which has since been removed, commenters wrote, “hahaha hahahahha hahahahahah ahhaha.” Wired reported that someone else wrote: “Instant Darwinism …” to which a fellow commenter wrote: “f**king a nicely put.” Others called the teen a “coward,” “faggot” and a “dick.”
In the Web stream, Crane said viewers saw a piece of a door frame — which had splintered from the police kicking in the teen’s bedroom door — hit Biggs, who is curled up on his bed and facing away from the camera.
“Then you see a police officer go in and check on him, and then the EMS pronounced him dead,” said Crane. Biggs was pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 19 — about 12 hours after he had begun blogging about his suicide. The official cause of death was suicide combined with drug toxicity. Crane said that benzodiazepines and opiates were found near the body, but a blood toxicology to quantify just how much Biggs consumed is still under way.
Crane said that at least one of the prescription drugs was in Biggs’ name.
In this case, family didn’t understand the desperation he was feeling:
Reached by telephone, Biggs’ father, Abraham Biggs Sr., told ABCNews.com that he was shocked to learn of his son’s death. “He was a good kid. Everyone knows him,” said Biggs. “We live together and everything was fine — I’m so surprised.”
Biggs had struggled with depression, according to his father, and had been prescribed medication for bipolar disorder. Benzodiazepine is commonly prescribed as a sleep aid or an anti-anxiety medication.
Even so, Biggs had been “doing better,” according to his father and had been attending daily classes at Broward College, where he was pursing a career as a paramedic.
The Internet has fostered a bizarre context in which this kind of thing can occur in public:
David Griner, a social media strategist for Luckie & Company, said that while public deaths are not new, online chatrooms provide an especially accessible forum for those debating suicide.
“The social Web tends to create a sideshow atmosphere, like public executions in the 1700s,” said Griner. “The anonymity and lack of personal connection bring out the worst in people.”
Griner points out that there have been several other online suicides, and some have been faked as well.
In February 2008 a girl who identified herself only as “90 Day Jane” wrote an anonymous blog chronicling the days leading up to her death. The blog turned out to be a hoax, and “Jane” later described it as an “art project.”
The United Kingdom had an online suicide in March 2007, when 42-year-old Kevin Whitrick hanged himself while others watched. According to the BBC, some onlookers tried to stop him while others urged him on.
“The explosion of high-speed Internet access in the past few years has made it so that almost anyone can broadcast a live video in front of a global audience,” said Griner. “It’s impossible for sites like Justin.tv to monitor everything that’s going on, so that puts the burden on the community to help stop bad things from happening.”
Griner believes that those who encourage suicidal people are simply a sad reality of an unrestricted World Wide Web. Even so, some potential suicides are prevented on the Internet as well.
“You’ll always have the morbid jerks who yell ‘Jump!’ when someone’s on a rooftop, and you’ll always have people threatening suicide in a public venue,” said Griner. “And while it’s easy to focus on the abundance of bloodthirsty trolls online, the bright side is that the Internet also gives more decent people the opportunity to intervene and try to save a life.”
“Most times, they just need someone to talk to, and the Internet is the only forum they have.”
Moral of the story? Don’t go online for solace. You won’t find it here.
liz | 11:18 AM | Uncategorized
