RX For Disaster

How many people are on psychiatric drugs in America??Nearly 77 million or about one in every four Americans!?And that’s about one in every four adults, children, and yes, infants. Last year 85,003 infants were prescribed psychiatric drugs which included 60,068 infants on anti-anxiety drugs, 21,593 on mood stabilizers, 7,811 on antidepressants, 1,318 on antipsychotics, and 310 on ADHD drugs!?All of these infants were under 12-months old. (Source: IQVia Total Patient Tracker [TPT] Database, Year 2020 Extracted January 2021.)

Nuts? For Sure. Criminal? Let’s see.

The Criminal Hit Parade

Over the past three years, nearly every major drug company in America has been convicted of some kind of criminal behavior, whether it is fudging drug safety data; pushing drugs for off-label uses; bribing doctors and medical professionals to prescribe dangerous drugs; or conducting fraudulent clinical trials. Collectively, these companies have been forced to pay roughly $11 billion in fines for these and other crimes, which have apparently become a normal part of their business plan.

Richard Scrushy founded the HealthSouth Corporation was charged with over 30 counts of extortion, money laundering, bribery, obstruction of justice, and racketeering and was sentenced to six years and ten months in prison.

The founder and four former executives of INSYS Therapeutics Inc. were convicted in connection with bribing medical practitioners to prescribe Subsys, a highly addictive sublingual fentanyl spray intended for cancer patients experiencing breakthrough pain, and for defrauding Medicare and private insurance carriers.

Trusting Big Pharma to protect our health and well-being is like putting Jeffrey Epstein in charge of security of a girl scout camp.

Partners in Crime

Campaign laws make Big Pharma’s contributions to elected officials transparent.?In 2020 Democrats received over $7 million in contributions, and Republican nearly $5 million. Of the 435 members of congress, 395 received Big Pharma money with the average Democrat netting $20,182 and the average Republican $16, 307. Only two senators were not on Big Pharma’s Christmas list with Democrats receiving an average of $48,883 each, and Republicans $24,108. Senator Schumer of New York topped the list with the greatest contribution among our lawmakers of $285,146.?These are all direct contributions and do not account for the billions spent lobbying our lawmakers.

Additionally, Big Pharma provides approximately 45% of the FDA budget.

Isn’t it comforting to know that 45% of the security for our chickens is provided by foxes?

And surely, we shouldn’t expect the media to report accurately on matters related the Big Pharma with the huge advertising budget of Big Pharma. Of 195 countries in the world, only America and New Zealand permit pharmaceutical companies to advertise.?Aren’t we lucky?

Psychiatrists For Sale

With the U.S. prescribing antipsychotics to children and adolescents at a rate six times greater than the U.K., and with 30 million Americans having taken antidepressants for a “chemical imbalance” that psychiatrists admit is a pharmaceutical marketing campaign, not scientific fact, it is no wonder that the conflict of interest between psychiatry and Big Pharma does not pass the smell test. Psychiatrists and other prescribers have also been on the dole in some of the highest places. Here’s a sampling.

Joseph Biederman, chief of the Program in Pediatric Psychopharmacology, Massachusetts General Hospital, has received research funds from 15 pharmaceutical companies. ?He earned $1.6 million in consulting fees from drug makers and did not report all of this income to Harvard University officials. His marketing of the theory that children have “bipolar” was attributed to the increase in antipsychotic drug sales for pediatric use in the United States to 2.5 million children.

Frederick Goodwin, former National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) director, earned at least $1.3 million for giving marketing lectures to physicians on behalf of drug makers—a fact he did not reveal to the audience, broadcaster, or producers of “The Infinite Mind,” that he hosted on the National Public Radio during its 10-year run.?

Martin Keller, professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University, chairman of the psychiatry department at the Alpert Medical School, studied GSK’s Paxil use in children and adolescents and its authors have been fiercely criticized in medical journals for allegedly misrepresenting data, suppressing information linking the drug to suicidal tendencies, and reaching a conclusion unsupported by the relevant data. Keller et al. made huge sums of money from the antidepressant manufacturer.?It was disclosed that while serving as chief of the psychiatry department at Brown University, Keller earned more than $842,000 from Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Wyeth-Ayerst and Eli Lilly, makers of antidepressants he “lauded in a series of medical research reports.”

The Result

Forty years ago, when I went into practice, we applauded the progress that the pharmaceutical industry had made: Mental institutions were largely shut down due to the prescription of anti-psychotic drugs. People were able to have an improved life within the community because of medications.?These medications were prescribed by highly trained psychiatrists.?It was understood that these prescriptions had sever side-effects, however measured against straight-jackets and rubber-rooms, they were a welcomed alternative.?It was hoped, that in time, the prognosis for those on medications would improve, and we could start talking “cure” rather than “management” for the most debilitating mental health disorders.

Not so fast.?Instead, what we got was a giant industry more powerful than their regulators and able to turn physicians into pushers and patients into addicts.?Today over 31 million Americans are on addictive, anti-anxiety drugs, over 45 million are on antidepressants, and nearly 10 million are on psychostimulants including over 3 million children.?Are Americans calmer, happier, or better performers? Not a chance. Instead, we are a drug-oriented society supplied not by trained psychiatrists, but rather, supplied by all manner of prescribers including most physicians, physician’s assistants, and nurse practitioners. Formally honorable professions, in many cases, have turned into vending machines with the most unethical practitioners making the greatest profits.

The Solution

While the pharmaceutical industry in America has radically changed in last 40 years, human nature has not.?People, for the most part, still trust their health care providers, although COVID-19 has impacted on that trust. People will inevitably choose “the path of least resistance.” When it comes to mental health, pill popping is that path.?It’s all about supply and demand.?The people will demand an easy solution, the prescribers will supply the pills, and Big Pharma will go to the bank.?It’s as simple as that.?Only education can change this dynamic.?

Mental health professionals, psychologists, psychotherapists, clinical social workers, counselors, and coaches, need to educate their clients.

Until prescribers become more dedicated to making their patients healthier instead of happier, frontline mental health workers will have to take the responsibility for educating their clients, for explaining the research, and expose the industry for what it is - a bare-assed Emperor proud of his new clothes.

As prescribers refer their patients for counseling after medicating their “chemical imbalance,” often to cover their own rear-ends in anticipation of a potential disaster, frontline workers need to take courage, to stand for the truth, to become the proverbial “voice in the desert.” Recovery requires responsibility, and responsibility requires information and education.?Every practitioner, in every profession, needs to ask themselves if they have the courage to first and foremost: “Do no harm.”

Ultimately, we are all patients, we are all dependent on medical practitioners, but most importantly, we are all responsible for our own health. ?Most of us are not medical professionals, but you don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.?We need to hold our professionals’ feet to the fire.?We need to seek and find professionals who understand the reality of Big Pharma and who are not apologists for corruption, but rather, true advocates for our health.

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