I've only seen one doctor who ' courted' the drug companies to excess. He was my primary care physician for a couple of years. I got tired of seeing the cute little female drug reps going in his office loaded down with samples and puny little branded giveaways for the staff while I had to wait and wait and wait to see him. Then, this doctor started giving me bags full of samples of the latest, most promoted meds for things I really didn't have serious problems with.
I went in for a tetanus booster because of a backyard puncture wound- I walked out with 2 new antibiotic samples, one of which is no longer on the market in oral form because of severe potential side effects.
I mentioned that I thought my Zocor was causing insomnia.I walked out with a month's worth of Ambien CR in his drug-branded plastic bags. My Zocor dose was never addressed.
I eventually threw his samples away, reported him to the state medical board and my insurance company, and found a
wonderful doctor. I had to find the doctor, because it is my responsibility.
Unfortunately, the medical board in my state had no jurisdiction over what kind or amount of samples a doctor hands a patient. The unscrupulous doctor now has a multi-million dollar waterfront mansion and a brand new office complex. He is one bad doctor among countless good ones, but he has high visibility as a bad example of a physician.
Extremely dedicated and talented doctors and their associated hospital teams have saved my life several times. I bet most posters here can think of a time when either their life or a family member's life is due to expert medical care.
How can a person put a value on excellent care? It's invaluable.
IF I had been suspicious of doctors in general and had delayed seeking treatment on at least 2 occasions, I would have surely died. Both occurrances involved very rare emergency situations which weren't easy to find. In other words, I didn't feel that bad, but I thought I should see my doctor just in case. Herbs or homeopathy wouldn't have worked. I would have been dead as a doornail in the absence of prompt, accurate diagnosis and treatment by a team of doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff. One of the most vital relationships we form is vital to our very survival and it is with our primary care physician. I would be terrified to go through life without having a doctor who knows me, knows my medical history and can take good care of me during illness or injury, as well as provide annual wellness care.
If the train of thought that drug companies rule over most doctors held true, the basic premise behind this fallacy is that most doctors are greedy and weak.
This is insulting. Placing the blame for the FDA's shortcomings onto doctors in general is misplacement of the blame, from what I know of the FDA's mandated role in approving ALL prescription drugs.
Last and most importantly to me:
One of the most important people in my personal life happened to be a physician, board certified in Internal Medicine. We 'dated' over a period of months that stretched into years. He was either on call, staying late at the hospital to monitor critically ill patients, or making our date only to fall asleep out of absolute exhaustion more times than I could count. I understood, and had great empathy for both his patients who needed him so much, and for his limited personal time. He showed me exactly what being a doctor means. We belonged together- only his time didn't stretch past 24 hours in a day.
When his practice hours had finally slowed down enough ( with the help of 2 partners ) for us to talk seriously about marriage, he was diagnosed with cancer and died less than a year later. He literally worked himself to death at a young age. A fine man who devoted his life to helping others simply ran out of time for himself.
Like you, I am extremely concerned about the implications and possible ramifications of the Yahoo study. I want to know more about the studies, and more about how and why SSRIs and SSRNIs have become so widely accepted, prescribed, and ingested by our populace.
If they are as ineffective as the Yahoo report suggests, then I hold the FDA responsible for green lighting the drugs in the first place, not the pharmaceutical companies who formulated them.
I know exactly what my dear doctor friend would say about this breaking news regarding SSRIs and SSRNIs, if he was still alive to see it: He would say that
no drug has ever been proven to effectively treat severe depression and that the Prozac nation should have seen this coming for a long time.
He would most likely also tell me that inpatient mental health treatment center programs need revitalization to provide the level of care for at least 30 days per patient which they offered before managed care cut their budgets so severely that they have become emergency holding areas only.
I strongly believe, from personal experience, that there is no magic bullet to 'cure' the disorder of depression severe enough to require medical intervention.
Very few docs are involved in kickbacks or other forms of fraud, and we want them out of medicine and in jail more than you do because they disgrace what we have devoted our lives to. Big pharma needs a complete purging; how this can happen, I don't know. I trust very little of what they say and have to research all claims. The reason this article is so troubling is that the journals I use to do the research are now called into question. This is a landmark article identifying a very big problem. We'll hear more about this, and soon I hope.
Crypto6
