Where is the Real Drug Problem?

Let me begin this post by stating that pharmaceuticals have a role in psychological treatment. But I will also state unequivocally that the role of drugs in psychological treatment has been totally distorted by the vast amounts of money made by big drug corporations, certain universities, and many, many individual clinicians. There is a big pharma-university-psychiatrist complex that makes a scientific basis for national mental health policy pretty much impossible at this point in time.

If you want to read an excellent, moving, and well written book that asserts some profound benefits of medication for people diagnosed with Bi-polar disorder try Kay Redfield Jamison's
An Unquiet Mind. If you would like to read up other sides of the issue, try this blogpost from Psychology Today or this good summary of a point of view that accepts the premise that psychological disorder have a "medical" reality, or this view that such a diagnosis is more socially driven than biological, or this rather convincing (to me) overview of the criticism leveled at the whole assumption that neurochemicals and behavior have a proven, causal relationship.

There is alot out there to read. Basically, the drugs are largely unproven and have dangerous side effects. But the behavior to be treated can be fantastically destructive of human potential and causes enormous suffering. Some drugs seem to work sometimes, but usually not much better than placebo. The universities, big corporations, publications, and clinicians that profit from the drugs are not honest brokers.

Now look at this (from Furious Seasons):

Many of you are already aware of the two-year-old lawsuit brought by the State of Texas against J&J/Janssen over allegations that the drugmaker worked to influence the Texas Medication Algorithm Project to favor its star atypical antipsychotic Risperdal and made payoffs to state officials, among other allegations. A similar children's medication project is under investigation by state officials.

Yesterday, the state amended its complaint to include allegations that the company gave out false marketing materials and used fake advocacy groups to get its then-expensive drug (which is now a generic) used in the state MedicAid program. Although the state isn't naming names in its complaint (who is the mysterious fake advocacy group?), the complaint is worth reading. You can download it from the Dallas Morning News' website.

I've read the complaint and it's the usual set of allegations that J&J/Janssen took a drug designed to treat schizophrenia--not a very efficacious drug at that--and pressed to have it used off-label in adults and children for a number of other indications. In the process, the company used state officials as pitchmen for its drug and somehow got its drug on the children's list--which was never implemented and was recently suspended altogether--eight years before it was approved for use in kids and teens by the FDA. Earlier this year it was revealed that Texas officials and researchers wanted to use McDonald's gift certificates as inducements to get kids on medication trials.