Tag: Big Pharma

Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill

Written by AbleChild on August 9, 2022. Posted in Essential Books.

This book is a heavily-researched history, background and overview of the barbaric and inhumane treatments of the mentally ill that would shock any reader. Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment provides much-needed muckracking into what has really been going on with mental health in the United States for the past couple of centuries.

This book really digs into the science and doesn’t just accept the medical, psychiatric and pharmaceutical industries’ marketing jargon that so many have come to believe over the years. The research in Mad in America goes back to the moral therapy used by the Quakers in the early 1800s, the eugenics movement of the mentally ill that took place in the 1930s, and takes a magnifying glass to how schizophrenics are really doing in the present day (they happen to be worse off than patients in some of the poorest countries, according to the research done in this book).

Mad in America also breaks apart many of the narratives the pharmaceutical industry has peddled about psychiatric medication and how it has supposedly allowed higher functioning of the mentally ill. Once again, this content is all backed by medical journalist Robert Whitaker’s exhaustive research and data. This book is packed with solid historical and scientific data that connects the dots about something that plays such a huge part in our every day lives: mental health and psychiatry. Mad in America has already made a lasting impact on America, and is sure to continue doing so for years to come.

About the Author

Robert Whitaker is an American medical journalist and author, whose books include Anatomy of an Epidemic (which won the 2010 Investigative Reporters and Editors book award for best investigative journalism), Mad in America, ( which was named by Discover magazine as one of the best science books of 2002), On the Laps of Gods and The Mapmaker’s Wife.

He has written numerous articles about the mentally ill and pharmaceutical industry, which have led him to receive several awards: the George Polk Award for Medical Writing, a National Association of Science Writers’ Award for best magazine article, and Whitaker was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Whitaker co-wrote a series on series on psychiatric research for the Boston Globe in 1998, and has published more than twenty short stories in literary magazines such as the Indiana Review, Black Warrior Review, Florida Review, and Columbia: A Magazine of Poetry and Prose. Whitaker is now the publisher of MadinAmerica.com.

Reviews

Mother Jones:

“A passionate, compellingly researched polemic, as fascinating as it is ultimately horrifying.”

Chicago Tribune:

“Controversial…. [Whitaker] marshals a surprising amount of evidence.”

Seattle Times:

“Intelligent and bold.”

Psychiatry, the Ultimate Betrayal

Written by AbleChild on August 9, 2022. Posted in Essential Books.

This book is an eye-opener that gives a remarkably thorough history of psychiatry, dating back from the 19th century to the present day. It exposes the manner in which power, money and influence helped peddle theories as facts, which all led to the stronghold that psychiatry had developed on our world today.

Psychiatry, the Ultimate Betrayal covers everything from electric shock treatments in the 50s to the Holocaust. It examines the role that politicians and the media have had over the years. It really gives the reader an entirely new outlook on ideas so many of us just accepted for years without much thought. It shows how many people believed the lies and unknowingly helped contribute to the growth of this monster, and how many others knew all along that they were hurting our children and robbing them of education and growth, but did it anyways.

This very well-researched book schools our society on the fact that these professionals we have listened to and let infiltrate every area of our lives and our children’s lives, who we allow to tell us what is wrong with us and how we should fix it, have no concern in our best interest. Psychiatry, the Ultimate Betrayal says that now is the time we break apart these evil forces and starting turning society around.

About the Author

Bruce Wiseman is a human rights advocate who has fought for several decades to expose and end human rights abuses in the area of mental health. He is an internationally renowned speaker on the topic of psychiatric abuses, having made over 600 radio and television appearances on the damages psychiatry is inflicting on society, ranging from psychiatric drugs to psychiatric sexual abuse to electro shock therapy. He has done extensive work with legislative and judicial authorities in efforts to eliminate these mental health system abuses, and even testified against involuntary commitment of children in front of the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee. Wiseman is a former chairman of the Department of History at the John F. Kennedy University, and currently serves as the U.S. national president of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights. He holds a master’s degree cum laude from California State University at San Jose, and resides in Los Angeles with his family.

Reviews

Clinton Miller, National Council for Improved Health:

“Not since Paul Revere took his midnight ride to alert our forefathers that the British were coming has a WARNING been so urgently needed as the wake-up call you deliver in PSYCHIATRY-THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL”

Morton Feldman, Executive Vice President, National Association of Chiefs of Police:

“Psychiatry-The Ultimate Betrayal…answers a tremendous number of questions as to what happened to cause the social unrest we see on a daily basis in this country.”

Director, Office of Consumer Affairs, New Hampshire Hospital, Concord:

“I think you know that I found Ultimate Betrayal to be unrivaled portrayal of psychiatry’s essential tendency to engage in social engineering under the guise of ‘medical expertise’–a dangerous role that they cleverly cultivate at our expense. This book is extremely well done, and I sincerely hope that it will be widely read.”

Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher

Written by AbleChild on June 17, 2022. Posted in Essential Books.

This raw and candid story by Gwen Olsen, a former pharmaceutical sales representative, combines an emotional personal narrative with thorough research backed up by statistics, scientific data, court cases and cases studies. Not only will Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher give readers a birds-eye view of the pharmaceutical industry from an former sales rep that peddled these drugs, it satisfies the mind’s desire for the due diligence that delivers factual and unbiased answers.

Gwen Olsen explains the ins and outs of her former job, how the more sales that pharmaceutical reps like her made, the more they were financially rewarded. This was despite the fact that many of these drugs had been through inadequate testing to understand their long-term effects. She urges patients to be their own advocate, asking questions about any drugs they are prescribed, regarding potential risks and details of clinical trials.

Olsen also tells this story from her perspective as a former victim of the adverse effects of pharmaceutical drugs, and as the aunt to a young woman that committed suicide after a tortured life spent on a plethora of prescription drugs that left her despondent at the very end. Olsen gives her personal stories authority in Confessions of a Drug Pusher by also providing thorough information she gathered about this industry, such as “Prescription drug use has become the third-largest killer of Americans behind heart disease and cancer,” and “more than 180,000 people die annually from the effects of legal drugs.”

About the Author

Gwen Olsen spent fifteen years working as a sales representative for pharmaceutical giants such as McNeil Pharmaceutical, Syntex Laboratories, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Abbott Labs, and Forest Laboratories. She spent most of her career as a hospital rep and specialist rep, educating residents in hospital teaching settings and selling prescription drugs to various doctors. She is now using her unique perspective gained from her professional and personal experiences with pharmaceuticals to help expose Big Pharma, and their greed, corruption and marketing tactics. Olsen is a passionate mental health activist, speaker and writer.

Reviews

Robert Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic:

“In Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher, Gwen Olsen brings together the knowledge of an “insider” trained to sell doctors on the merits of pills; the personal experience of having taken psychiatric medications and seen how they altered her life; and the deep grief of having lost her niece—following her treatment with psychiatric medications—to suicide. This book has both an intellectual and emotional punch that readers will long remember.”

Dr. Ben Lerner, chiropractor and New York Times bestselling author of Body by God:

“It is easy to disregard prescription drug deaths, medical errors, and U.S. health care crisis statistics as just numbers. However, they are not. In a well researched, impeccably documented, finely written manner Gwen Olsen has given us account of the gripping details of real people hurt by the failures of modern health care. A former pharmaceutical representative herself, the information is as credible as it is compelling. It is vital for those currently taking prescription medication to read and understand this book.”

Meria Heller, producer/host of The Meria Heller Show:

“When you realize what is being sold to you as a “remedy” you will realize how you are playing Russian Roulette with yours and your children’s lives. This book is a MUST read for every American and every parent in the country.”

Selling Sickness: How the World’s Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients

Written by AbleChild on June 17, 2022. Posted in Essential Books.

This book, written by top health journalist Ray Moynihan and Canadian science writer Alan Cassels, is an analysis on pharmaceutical companies, and how they have colluded with medical science to expand their customer base and increase profits. This has been accomplished by lowering thresholds for certain disorders such as high cholesterol, creating narratives around common problems to turn them into diseases (such as sexual dysfunction), and to market their prescription drugs to not just sick people, but healthy people as well.

Moynihan and Cassels make it clear that there are definitely serious illnesses, conditions and disorders that require prescription drugs. Often, even powerful prescription drugs may be needed that come with side effects that may be worth enduring when weighed against the benefits of the drug. But in Selling Sickness: How the World’s Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients, which was published in 2005, these authors illustrate how much of the world’s population, and even medical professionals, have been tricked into believing these pharmaceutical companies have altruistic intentions. The public has been warped into thinking they can trust the ads and commercials that are funded by these profiting pharma companies and say these drugs are safe and helpful, while downplaying potential risks.

As a result, many healthy people are on prescription drugs for normal everyday issues and these drugs are not only doing very little to help their condition, they are often creating even more problems for the patient thanks to various side effects. And sick people with conditions such as high blood pressure, for example, are now programmed to automatically turn to prescription drugs to fix their health problem, when natural remedies, such as diet and exercise, may be all they need. As more and more types and brands pharmaceutical drugs become available, and more and more medical diagnoses are created worldwide, this book is a must read.

About the Authors

Ray Moynihan

Ray Moynihan is one of the world’s leading health writers, with a background in academic research and investigative journalism. His work has appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age, the Australian Financial Review, Crickey.com, The Conversation, The Saturday Paper, the British Medical Journal, Lancet, and New England Journal of Medicine. He has given many presentations in universities, conferences and workshops worldwide.

Moynihan won a Harkness Fellowship, based at Harvard University, in 1999. Then in 2015 Ray completed his PhD on Overdiagnosis at what was then the Centre for Research in Evidence-Based Practice at Bond University in Australia. He is an honorary adjunct Assistant Professor at Bond University’s, Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare, and Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Sydney, and has been a cojoint lecturer at University of Newcastle, in Australia.

Moynihan has also done television and radio work with his investigative journalism, such as ABC TV’s investigative program, Four Corners and the 7:30 Report, and he recently hosted a series of podcasts from Australia called The Recommended Dose. He has written a total of four books and his most recent book, Sex, Lies & Pharmaceuticals, was released in 2010.

Alan Cassels

Alan Cassels is a Canadian writer who has been immersed in pharmaceutical policy research and healthcare journalism for the past 23 years. He has written several other books, including The ABCs of Disease Mongering: An Epidemic in 26 Letters, and Seeking Sickness: Medical Screening and the Misguided Hunt for Disease. His most recent book, The Cochrane Collaboration: Medicine’s Best Kept Secret (published in 2015) examines the history of a stellar international organization which produces some of the world’s highest quality medical information.

Cassel’s work has been heavily concentrated around exposing the large gap between the marketing and the science around prescription drugs, medical screening and other forms of disease creation. The head of RX&D, the research-based pharmaceutical association in Canada, refuses to debate Alan Cassels and his research on the drug industry’s practices.

Reviews

Gary Schwitzer, HealthNewsReview.org:

“It documents disease-mongering, how drug companies foster the creation of medical conditions to create markets for their pills, the marketing of fear, the “medicalization” of normal states of health, the hidden agendas of “disease-awareness campaigns,” problems with drug company relationships with celebrity spokespersons and patient advocacy groups, and other issues about which most consumers don’t have a clue. I highly recommend the book.”

Prescription for Disaster: The Hidden Dangers in Your Medicine Cabinet

Written by AbleChild on June 17, 2022. Posted in Essential Books.

Prescription for Disaster: The Hidden Dangers in Your Medicine Cabinet is a book designed to create informed consumers. There is too little known about the long-term safety of many drugs that are prescribed to hundreds of thousands of children, such as Ritalin. Other drugs like Xanax are very addictive, and there are countless side effects for so many other drugs that are prescribed liberally by doctors. Thanks to lack of testing by the FDA and insufficient monitoring of side effects, and the failure of doctors to provide patients with adequate information about the potential risks for the drug they are being prescribed, it’s no wonder that prescription drugs are involved in 100,000 deaths per year, as the book states. And this is just the beginning of the statistics, shocking situational examples and thorough research that is laid out in this revolutionary book.

Consumers and patients have become part of the problem as well by not being informed, and this is why consumer advocate and prizewinning investigative journalist Thomas Moore wrote this eye-opening book. He provides a wealth of important information on side effects and potential dangers associated with common drugs prescribed for all kinds of medical conditions. Prescription for Disaster: The Hidden Dangers in Your Medicine Cabinet also guides the consumer on what many of the different warnings and labels mean that are found on prescription drugs, and what questions you need to be asking your doctor and pharmacist. Moore makes a strong and emotionally appealing case in this book that should be read by all prescription drug consumers.

About the Author

Thomas J. Moore is a award-winning investigative reporter who also spent six years researching and writing about prescription drug safety and dangers as a senior fellow in health policy at the George Washington Medical Center. He is co-author of more than 30 scientific studies focusing on clinical trials, US Food and Drug Administration regulation of therapeutic drugs, adverse event reporting, pharmacovigilance with electronic health records, and the risks of psychoactive therapeutic drugs.

Aside from Prescription for Disaster, Moore has written three other books total around the safety and dangers of prescription drugs. His book Deadly Medicine told the gripping story of the nation’s worst drug disaster that killed tens of thousands of heart patients. His other two books are called Heart Failure and Lifespan: Who Lives Longer and Why. For ten years Moore served as project director for QuarterWatch: An Independent Perspective on Emerging Drug Risks, a drug safety publication of the non-profit Institute for Safe Medication Practices. His consulting and research are conducted under the umbrella of Drug Safety Research, a sole proprietorship with offices in Alexandria, Virginia. Through his research, Moore has worked with lawyers, the national news media, and pharmaceutical fraud prosecutors on a wide variety of projects.

Reviews

Kirkus Reviews:

“The key to improving the system, Moore says, is an informed, concerned, and even demanding public, which this book is designed to create. Vintage Moore—sharp, readable, persuasive.”

Critical New Perspectives on ADHD

Written by AbleChild on June 17, 2022. Posted in Essential Books.

Critical New Perspectives on ADHD is an in-depth exploration, drawn from the analyses of experts worldwide, of the ADHD phenomenon that occurred in the 21st century. This book, edited by Gwynedd Lloyd, Joan Stead and David Cohen, explains how the concept of ADHD came to be, and the background surrounding it’s development. It examines the significant ways ADHD has altered schools, families and the lives of children across the across the world, and it seems that this psychiatric disorder is becoming more prevalent as each day passes.

The book takes a deep dive into the parallel growth of the pharmaceutical industry, examining how these pharmaceutical companies needed new markets for their medications, and how they have profited in recent years. Critical New Perspectives on ADHD, published in 2006, enters new territory, laying out theories and bringing to light evidence that can’t be found in most accepted reading material on this topic. The book takes a bold perspective, questioning current practices in the psychiatric industry that are based on controlling children’s behavior with medication. It’s a must-read for anyone curious about ADHD and other mental diagnoses.

The Myth of the Hyperactive Child: And Other Means of Child Control

Written by AbleChild on September 30, 2021. Posted in Essential Books.

Though this book was published back in 1975, it was ahead of it’s time. Authors Peter Schrag and Diane Divoky produced a very well-researched book that is backed up by bold and insightful arguments. Schrag and Divoky examine the landscape of mental health profession, the public school system, and how they are shifting into a more authoritarian role, and are no longer advocates for our children. The authors expose the loose haphazard research done on “disorders” such as MBD (minimal brain dysfunction) and the lack of evidence of the effectiveness of psychiatric drugs like Ritalin, as well as the dangerous side effects of these drugs. The book also gives an in-depth analysis of the increased implementation of practices such as psychological testing, data banks, “predelinquency screenings” and behavior modification, to “fix” our children, many of whom are perfectly healthy and normal.

The authors warn parents of the psychiatric labels and psychotropic drugs that could be forced on their kids, who have no defense. And much of this psychiatric treatment, under the guise of “helping” the child, is likely to in fact cause further psychological damage. This begins a vicious cycle that leaves your child a slave to the government system, with various psychiatric labels that follow them around for their lifetime. The Myth of the Hyperactive Child is written from a unique perspective that explains the big picture of the mental health industry (and society in general) that was taking place in 1975, and is still taking place now in 2021. Specifically the book puts the focus on the increasing power of institutions over individuals, and their interference with human liberties. The book also points out that while the safety of psychotropic drugs is a concern, there is a bigger issue we are facing that threatens our children and society at large: the “ideology of drugging” and early intervention.

About the Author

Peter Schrag is an American writer, editor and scholar of California politics and political history. Schrag was a columnist and page editor at the daily newspaper the Sacramento Bee for nineteen years. He wrote for the weekly magazine The Nation for nearly a half century. Schrag is also a former visiting scholar at the Institute of Government Studies at the University of California.

A notable honor Schrag received during his career was being listed as a notable editor and writer by Marquis Who’s Who. He was a Guggenheim fellow from 1971072, and a National Endowment of the Arts fellow from 1976-77. He was born in Germany, and received his Bachelor of Arts from Amherst College in Massachusetts. Some of the other books Schrag has published include When Europe Was a Prison Camp: Father and Son Memoirs, 1940-41 (Indiana University Press, 2015), Paradise Lost: California’s Experience, America’s Future, and Final Test: The Battle for Adequacy in America’s Schools.

Reviews

Aryeh Neier, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union:

“For the last half century, Americans have been responding to real and imagined social problems by pinning derogatory labels on people, excluding them from opportunities available to others, and then bemoaning the worsening of the problems. Some of the newest and most dangerous labels stigmatize young children. They are called ‘hyperactive,’ ‘predelinquent,’ or are said to suffer from ‘learning disabilities.’ In their fine book, Diane Divoky and Peter Schrag give us an absorbing account of what is going on. The information they gather and the insights they share with us give us a chance to save our children from the awful things done to them in the guise of helping them.”

The New York Times:

“Schrag and Divoky present us with fine polemical writing in a well‐researched and thoughtfully argued brief intended to stimulate informed action against the widespread use of drugs, psychological testing, data banks, “predelinquency” screening, [and] behavior modification[.]”