Authors: James Davies
135
Paraphased from Carlat's
New York Times
article, “Dr. Drug Rep.”
136
Carlat continued: “This is why companies hire physicians. Over the years, companies have found by trial that a physician pitching a drug is much more effective to the bottom line than the drug being pitched by a rep. The reasons for that are obvious. When you listen to a drug rep, you know you are listening to a salesperson whose incentive is to make a bonus based on your prescribing. But when you listen to a colleague physician, even though you know that he or she is being paid by the company, there is a tendency to trust that person, to believe that it would be somehow uncouth for a fellow physician colleague to have the same kind of financial motivation the drug reps have.” [interview, August 2012]
137
Kimberly Elliott quoted in: Carlat, D.
Unhinged,
125.
138
In fact, in 2007 nearly three-quarters of antidepressants in the United States were prescribed by non-psychiatrists. see: Mojtabai, R., and Olfson, M. “Proportion of Antidepressants Prescribed Without A Psychiatric Diagnosis Is Growing.”
Health Affairs,
August 30, 2011 vol. 30 no. 8: 1434â1442.
139
See: Grant, B. “Merck Published Fake Journal,”
The Scientist,
April 30, 2009.
140
Timimi, S. “Child Psychiatry and its Relationship with the Pharmaceutical Industry: theoretical and practical issues,” 3â9. doi: 10.1192/apt.bp.105.000901
141
NHS Report “Prescriptions Dispensed in the Community: England, Statistics for 2001 to 2011, 2012.” Published by The Health and Social Care Information Centre. website:
http://www.ic.nhs.uk/webfiles/publications/007_Primary_Care/Prescribing/Prescriptions%202001%20to%202011/Prescriptions_Dispensed_2001_2011.pdf
[accessed Aug. 2012].
142
This approximate figure is based upon taking relative population sizes into account: there were 46.7 million prescriptions of antidepressants dispensed in 2011 in Britain (UK population is 62.6 million), and 254 million prescriptions of antidepressants dispensed in 2011 in the United States (US population is 311.6 million). The US figure was sourced from:
Antidepressants: a complicated picture. Published online by the National Institute of Mental Health. website:
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2011/antidepressants-a-complicated-picture.shtml
[accessed July 2012].
143
By the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies were spending about $700 million on direct-to-consumer advertising each year. But by 2005, they were spending more than $4.2 billion a year, according to the United States GAO (Government Accountability Office, 2006). See: Sufrin, C. B., and Ross, J. S. “Pharmaceutical industry marketing: understanding its impact on women's health.”
Obstetrical and Gynecological Survey
, 63(9) (2008): 585â96.
144
Quoted in: Lacasse, J. R., and Leo, J. “Questionable Advertising of Psychotropic Medications and Disease Mongering.”
PLoS Med,
3(7) (2006): e321. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0030321
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030321
145
Lacasse, J. R., and Leo, J. “Serotonin and depression: A disconnect between the advertisements and the scientific literature.”
PLoS Med,
2(12) (2005): e392.
146
Kirsch, I.
The Emperor's New Drugs: exploding the antidepressant myth
. London: Bodley Head, 2009, 81.
147
Promotional video, American Psychiatric Association website:
http://www.healthyminds.org/
[accessed Feb. 2011].
148
Foster, J. L. “Perpetuating Stigma?: Differences between advertisements for psychiatric and non-psychiatric medication in two professional journals.”
Journal of Mental Health
, 19(1) (2010): 26â33. http://cambridge.academia.edu/JulietFoster/Papers/441956/Perpetuating_Stigma_Differences_between_advertisements_for_psychiatric_and_non-psychiatric_medication_in_two_professional_journals
149
Quoted in: Glibody, S., Wilson, P., and Watt, I. “Direct-to-Consumer Adverting of Psychotropics: an emerging and evolving form of pharmaceutical company influence.”
The British Journal of Psychiatry,
189 (2004): 1â2.
150
Lacasse, J. R., and Leo, J. “Serotonin and Depression: A Disconnect between the Advertisements and the Scientific Literature,” e392.
151
Donohue, J., and Berndt, E. “Effects of direct-to-consumer advertising on medication choice: The case of antidepressants.”
Journal of Public Policy and Marketing
, 23 (2004): 115â127.
Also see: Rosenthal, M. B. et al. “Demand Effects of Recent Changes in Prescription Drug Promotion.”
Frontiers in Health Policy Research
, Vol. 6, D.M. Cutler and A.M. Garber, eds. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003, 1â26.
152
Kravitz, R. L. et al. “Influence of patients' requests for direct-to-consumer advertised antidepressants: A randomized controlled trial.”
JAMA
, 293 (2005): 1995â2002.
153
Gilbody, S., Wilson, P., and Watt, I. “Direct-to-Consumer Adverting of Psychotropics: an emerging and evolving for of pharmaceutical company influence.”
The British Journal of Psychiatry,
189 (2004): 1â2.
154
Gray, R. “When Taking Pills can be Better than Talking,” 2011. (
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12716742
[accessed Aug. 2011].
155
This chapter brings together and articulates some arguments made in my previous book. see: Davies, J.
The Importance of Suffering: the value and meaning of emotional discontent
. London: Routledge, 2012.
156
see: Porter, R.
A Social History of Madhouses, Mad Doctors and Lunatics
. London: NPI, 1996.
157
Moncrieff, J.
The Myth of the Chemical Cure,
32.
158
Ibid.
159
Ibid.
160
Ibid.
161
See: Squire, L. R., and Slater, P. C. “Electroconvulsive therapy and complaints of memory dysfunction: a prospective three-year follow-up study.”
British Journal of Psychiatry,
142 (2007): 1â8.
See also: Breggin, P. “ECT Damages the Brain: Disturbing News for Patients and Shock Doctors Alike.”
Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry,
9 (2) (2007): 83â86.
Finally see: Andre, L.
Doctors of Deception: What They Don't Want You to Know About Shock Treatment
. Rutgers University Press, 2009.
162
Bracken, P. et al. “Psychiatry Beyond the Current Paradigm,” submitted to the
British Journal of Psychiatry
(due publication date: December 2012).
163
I have slightly altered this quotation. see: Davies,
The Importance of Suffering
.
164
This discussion of different cultural repsonses to voice hearing is paraphrased from my earlier book. Davies,
The Importance of Suffering
.
165
See: Bentall, R. P.
Doctoring the Mind: Why psychiatric treatments fail.
London: Penguin, 2010, 106.
166
For an excellent article that critiques this position, see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/magazine/10psyche-t.html?pagewanted=all
167
Angermeyer, M., and Matschinger, H. “Causal beliefs and attitudes to people with schizophrenia: trend analysis based on data from two population surveys in Germany.”
British Journal of Psychiatry,
186 (2005): 331â334.
168
Mehta, S. “Is being “sick” really better? Effects of disease view of mental disorder on stigma.”
Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology
, 16(4) (1997): 405â419.
169
See: Timimi, S. “Campaign to Abolish Psychiatric Diagnostic Systems such as ICD and DSM,” 2011. http://www.criticalpsychiatry.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=233:campaign-to-abolish-psychiatric-diagnostic-systems-such-as-icd-and-dsm-timimi-s&catid=34:members-publications&Itemid=56
For further summary of studies, see: Watters, E. “The Americanisation of Mental Illness,”
The New York Times
, January 8, 2010.
170
See argument by Ethan Watters in âThe Americanization of Mental Illness'.
New York Times
, January 8, 2010.
171
See: Burton, N. L.
Psychiatry
. Oxford: Blackwell, 2006.
172
Dowrick, C.
Beyond Depression: A New Approach to Understanding and Management
. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, 69.
173
Sharfstein, S. S. “
Big Pharma and American Psychiatry: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
”
Psychiatric News
, 40 (16) (2005): 3.
174
Davies, J.
The Importance of Suffering
.
175
Ibid.
176
For a full account of Watters's exploration of anorexia in Hong Kong, the account from which I draw here, see his excellent study: Watters, E.
Crazy Like Us: the globalization of the Western mind
. London: Robinson Publishing, 2011.
177
Ibid., 52.
178
These facts are from Janis Whitlock et al. unpublished paper: “Media & the Internet and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury.” For a similar published version, see: Whitlock, J. L., Purington, A., and Gershkovich, M. “Influence of the media on self-injurious behavior.” In
Understanding Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Current Science and Practice
, M. Nock (ed). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Press, 2009, 139â156.
179
See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3580365.stm
180
See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/10059733
181
See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/health/newsid_8563000/8563670.stm
182
Blanchflower, D. G., and Oswald, A. J. “Well-Being Over Time in Britain and the USA,” 2000. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~blnchflr/papers/Wellbeingnew.pdf
183
“The Well-being of Children in the UK,” University of York, 2004. http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/spru/wellbeingsummary.pdf
184
These facts are from Janis Whitlock et al. unpublished paper: “Media & the Internet and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury.” For a similar published version, see: Whitlock, J. L., Purington, A., and Gershkovich, M. “Influence of the media on self injurious behavior.” In
Understanding Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Current Science and Practice
, M. Nock (ed), 139â156.
185
Ibid.
186
See: Watters, E.
Crazy Like Us,
33.
187
Ibid.
188
Harrington, A. “Being Human: individual + society & morals + culture,” 2012. See presentation: http://fora.tv/2012/03/24/Being_Human_Individual_ Society_Morals_Culture
189
See: Watters, E.
Crazy Like Us,
65.
190
Lakoff, A. “The Anxieties of Globalization: antidepressant sales and economic crisis in Argentina.”
Social Studies of Science,
April 2004, 34: 247â269.
191
For a full account of these events, which I paraphrase here, please see Watters,
Crazy Like Us.
192
Ibid.
193
Paraphrased from ibid., 211.
194
See the following article on Japan and depression in
The New York Times
:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/22/magazine/did-antidepressants-depress-japan.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
195
Ibid.
196
Ibid.
197
Ibid.
198
Skultans, V. “From Damaged Nerves to Masked Depression: inevitability and hope in Latvian psychiatric narratives,”
Social Science and Medicine
, 56 (12) (2003): 2421â2431.
199
For 2009 figures, see:
http://www.imshealth.com/ims/Global/Content/Corporate/Press%20Room/Top-line%20Market%20Data/2009%20Top-line%20Market%20Data/Top%2015%20Global%20Therapeutic%20Classes_2009.pdf
For 2010 figures, see:
http://www.imshealth.com/ims/Global/Content/Corporate/Press%20Room/Top-Line%20Market%20Data%20&%20Trends/2011%20Top-line%20Market%20Data/Top_20_Global_Therapeutic_Classes.pdf
200
See:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/22/lundbeck-
japan-idUSLDE73L03X20110422
)
201
See:
http://www.pharmatimes.com/article/10-12-16/Lundbeck_sees_China
_as_land_of_opportunity_for_Lexapro.aspx
202
See: http://www.woncaeurope.org/content/p05263-use-anti
depressants-primary-health-care-brazil
203
Ecks, S. “Pharmaceutical Citizenship: antidepressant marketing and the promise of demarginalization of India.”
Anthropology and Medicine
, 12 (3) (2005): 239â254.
204
Jablensky, A. et al. “Schizophrenia: manifestations, incidence and course in different cultures. A World Health Organization ten-country study.”
Psychological Medicine Monograph Supplement 20
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
205
Bhugra, D. “Severe Mental Illness Across Cultures.”
Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica
, 113, 429 (2006): 17â23.
206
Middleton, H. et al. “The Dodo Bird Verdict and the Elephant in the Room: A service user-led investigation of crisis resolution and home treatment.”
Health Sociology Review,
20(2): 147â156.
207
Mosher, L. R. “Soteria and Other Alternatives to Acute Psychiatric Hospitalization: A personal and professional review.”
Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease,
187 (1999): 142â149.
208
Watters, E. “The Americanization of Mental Illness,”
New York Times
, January 8, 2010.