Pharmageddon (46 page)

57
. Le Noury et al.,
Incidence and prevalence of diabetes in patients with serious mental illness in North West Wales
.

58
. Craig W. Colton and Ronald W. Manderscheid,
Congruencies in increased mortality rates, years of potential life lost, and causes of death among public mental health clients in eight states
, Preventing Chronic Disease, 3:2 (2006),
http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2006/apr/05_0180.htm
.

59
. Urban Osby et al.,
Time trends in schizophrenia mortality in Stockholm County, Sweden: A cohort study
, BMJ 321, 483–484 (2000).

60
. Matti Joukamaa, Markku Heliovaara, and Paul Knekt et al.,
Schizophrenia, neuroleptic medication and mortality
, British Journal of Psychiatry 188, 122–127 (2006); David J. Osborn et al.,
Relative risk of cardiovascular and cancer mortality in people with serious mental illness from the United Kingdom's General Practice Research Database
, Archives of General Psychiatry 64, 242–249 (2007); Suhanta Saha, David Chant, and John McGrath,
A systematic review of mortality in schizophrenia
, Archives of General Psychiatry 64, 1123–1131 (2007).

61
. J. J. P. Kastelein et al.,
Simvastatin with or without Ezetimibe in familial hypercholesterolemia
, NEJM 358, 1431–1443 (2008). Pfizer's torcetrapib was billed as doing the same, while still in development, but this development was ultimately stopped owing to a greater mortality in patients given torcetrapib; P. J. Barter et al.,
Effects of Torcetrapib in patients at high risk for coronary events
, NEJM 357, 2109–2122 (2007).

62
. Writing Group for the Women's Health Initiative Investigators,
Risks and benefits of estrogen plus progestin in healthy postmenopausal women: Principal results from the women's health initiative randomized controlled trial
, JAMA 288, 321–333 (2002).

63
. ONTARGET,
Telmisartan, Ramipril, or both in patients at high risk for vascular events
, NEJM 358, 1547–1559 (2008).

64
. Steven E. Nissen and Kathy Wolski,
Effect of Rosiglitazone on the risk of myocardial infarction and death from cardiovascular causes
, NEJM 356, 2457–2471 (2007).

65
. Committee on Finance, US Senate,
Staff Report on GlaxoSmithKline and the Diabetes Drug Avandia
(2010),
http://finance.senate.gov/press/Gpress/2010/prg022010a.pdf
.

66
. Craig J. Currie et al.,
Survival as a function of HbAic in people with type 2 diabetes: A retrospective cohort study
, Lancet (2010), doi:10.1016/S0140–6736(09)61969–3; Advance Collaborative Group,
Intensive blood glucose control and vascular outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes
, NEJM 358, 2560–2572 (2008); Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes Study Group,
Effects of intensive glucose lowering in type 2 diabetes
, NEJM 358, 2545–2559 (2008).

67
. Karen Davis et al.,
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: An International Update on the Comparative Performance of American Health Care
(Washington, DC: Commonwealth Fund, 2007),
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Publications/Fund-Reports/2007/May
; John Abramson,
Overdosed America
(New York: Harper Perennial, 2005).

68
. American Academy of Pediatrics, “New AAP Policy on Lipid Screening and Heart Health in Children,”
http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/july08lipidscreening.htm
(accessed Dec. 15, 2009).

69
. Thomas Jefferson, Peter Doshi, Matthew Thompson, and Carl Heneghan,
Ensuring safe and effective drugs: who can do what it takes?
BMJ 342, 148–151 (2011).

70
. Doron Garfinkel, Sarah Zur-Gil, and Joshua Ben-Israel,
The war against polypharmacy: A new cost-effective geriatric-palliative approach for improving drug therapy in disabled elderly people
, Israel Medical Association Journal 9, 430–434 (2007); Doron Garfinkel and Derelie Mangin,
Feasibility study of a systematic approach for discontinuation of multiple medications in older adults
, Archives of International Medicine 170, 1648–1654 (2010).

CHAPTER 6

1
. Since then the FDA has added warning labels to Singulair indicating that it may cause depression and suicidality.

2
. Neil Pearce,
Adverse Reaction: The Fenoterol Story
(Aukland: Auckland University Press, 2007).

3
. For example, diacetyl put in processed foods as a butter flavoring leads to a bronchiolitis—referred to as popcorn lung.

4
. Walter O. Spitzer et al.,
The use of beta agonists and the risk of death and near death from asthma
, NEJM 326, 501–506 (1992); Shelley Salpeter, Nicholas S. Buckley, Thomas M. Ormiston, and Edwin Salpeter,
Meta-analysis: Effect of long-acting beta agonist on severe asthma exacerbations and asthma related deaths
, Annals of Internal Medicine 144, 904–912 (2006).

5
. John Berger,
A Lucky Man
(Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books, 1973); M. Winckler,
The Case of Doctor Sachs
(New York: Seven Stories Press, 1998).

6
. Steven Timmermans and Marc Berg,
The Gold Standard: The Challenge of Evidence Based Medicine and Standardization in Health Care
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2003).

7
. Edward Shorter and David Healy,
Shock Therapy
(New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008).

8
. Hillel Schwartz,
Never Satisfied: A Cultural History of Diets, Fantasies and Fat
(New York: The Free Press, 1986).

9
. Schwartz,
Never Satisfied
.

10
. It is, however, difficult to know with any certainty what the prevalence of anorexia nervosa was before the 1960s. Whatever the prevalence of the disorder in some absolute sense, the number of patients accessing services for treatment was minimal compared with what came later. At one point in the 1970s and 1980s, almost all heads of psychiatric departments in London were eating-disorder researchers.

11
. T. R. Dawber, G. F. Meadors, and F. E. Moore, National Heart Institute, National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, and Federal Security Agency, Washington, DC,
Epidemiological Approaches to Heart Disease: The Framingham Study
, Presented at a Joint Session of the Epidemiology, Health Officers, Medical Care, and Statistics Sections of the American Public Health Association at the 78th Annual Meeting in St. Louis, MO, Nov. 3, 1950.

12
. Theodore Eisenberg and Martin T. Wells,
Statins and adverse cardiovascular events in moderate-risk females: A statistical and legal analysis with implications for FDA pre-emption
, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 5, 507–550 (2008).

13
. In men who have had a previous cardiovascular event, lowering cholesterol levels with drugs appears to reduce their risk of dying from a further cardiovascular event. Yet even in this case, it is now clear that the statin group of drugs have anti-inflammatory properties, just like aspirin, which also reduces the risk of a further heart attack, and it may be their benefits stem from this effect rather than any action on cholesterol. These drugs act on a range of systems around the body, and it may turn out that in some cases the statins can be helpful for other reasons, but despite the vast sales of these drugs today and the numbers of people taking them, there has been almost no research looking beyond blood cholesterol levels—almost certainly because this could spoil a good marketing story.

14
. John Abramson,
Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine
(New York: Harper Perennial, 2004).

15
. Ramon Estruch et al.,
Effects of a Mediterranean-style diet on cardiovascular risk factors: A randomized trial
, Annals of Internal Medicine 146, 1–11 (2006).

16
. Isabelle Savoie and Arminee Kazanjian,
Utilization of lipid-lowering drugs in men and women: A reflection of the research evidence
, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 55, 97–98 (2002); Peter S. Sever et al.,
Prevention of coronary and stroke events with atorvastatin in hypertensive patients who have average or lower than average cholesterol concentrations in the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial—Lipid lowering arm (ASCOT-LLA)
, Lancet 361, 1149–1155 (2003).

17
. Savoie and Kazanjian,
Utilization of lipid-lowering drugs in men and women
.

18
. Colette B. Raymond et al.,
Population-based analysis of statin utilization in British Columbia
, Clinical Therapeutics 29, 2107–2115 (2007).

19
. Dudley Gentles et al.,
Serum lipid levels for a multicultural population in Auckland, New Zealand
, New Zealand Medical Journal 120, 1–12 (2008).

20
. Gentles et al.,
Serum lipid levels for a multicultural population in Auckland, New Zealand
.

21
. Robert A. Wilson,
Feminine Forever
(New York: M. Evans, 1966).

22
. Gillian Sansom,
The Myth of Osteoporosis
(Ann Arbor, MI: Century Publications, 2003); Elaine S. Berman,
Too Little Bone: The Medicalization of Osteoporosis
, Journal of Women's Health and Law 1, 257–277 (1999).

23
. K. Bassett, “On trying to stop the measurement of bone density to sell drugs,” in
Tales from the Other Drug Wars
, ed. M. L. Barer et al. (Vancouver: Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, 2000).

24
.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121609815
.

25
. Tamir Ali and Roger H. Jay,
Spontaneous femoral shaft fracture after long-term alendronate
, Age and Ageing 38, 625–626 (2009).

26
. E. E. Roughead, K. McGeehan, and G. P. Sayer,
Biphosphonate use and subsequent prescription of acid suppressants
, British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 57, 813–816 (2004); Redonda G. Miller et al.,
Incidence of gastro-intestinal events among biphosphonate patients in an observational setting
, American Journal of Managed Care 10, 207–215 (2004).

27
. J. J. Wolff et al.,
The effect of exercise training programs on bone mass: A meta-analysis of published controlled trials in pre and post-menopausal women
, Osteoporosis International 9, 1–12 (1999).

28
. Max Hamilton,
A rating scale for depression
, Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 23, 56–62 (1960).

29
. Max Hamilton, “Rating Scales in Depression,” in
Depressive Illness, Diagnosis, Assessment, Treatment
, ed. P. Kielholz, 100–108 (Berne: Hanns Huber Publishers, 1972).

30
. David Healy, Derelie Mangin, and Barbara Mintzes,
The ethics of controlled trials in prenatal depression
, International Journal of Risk and Safety in Medicine 22, 1–10 (2010), doi:10.3233/JRS-2010–048.

31
. Ray Moynihan and David Henry,
The fight against disease mongering: Generating knowledge for action
, Public Library of Science Medicine 3 (2006). All articles in this issue of the journal were on disease mongering.

32
. Leonore Tiefer,
Female sexual dysfunction: A case study of disease mongering and activist resistance
, Public Library of Science Medicine 3, e178 (2006), doi:10.1371/journalpmed.0030178.

33
. Jennifer Berman and Laura Berman,
For Women Only
(New York: Henry Holt, 2001).

34
.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Third Edition
(Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association, 1980).

35
. Kimberly A. Yonkers et al.,
The management of depression during pregnancy: A report from the American Psychiatric Association and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
, General Hospital Psychiatry 31, 403–413 (2009).

36
. Now these drugs all carry warnings on their labels about the risk of suicide.

37
. Jason Lazarou, Bruce H. Pomeranz, and Paul N. Corey,
Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients: A meta-analysis of prospective studies
, JAMA 279, 1200–1205 (1998).

38
. The Institute for Safe Medication Practices, QuarterWatch 1–3 (2009),
http://www.ismp.org/QuarterWatch/2009Q3.pd
.

39
. Thomas E. Bittker,
The industrialization of American psychiatry
, American Journal of Psychiatry 142, 149–154 (1985).

40
. Philip M. Sinaikin,
Categorical diagnosis and a poetics of obligation: An ethical commentary on psychiatric diagnosis and treatment
, Ethical Human Sciences and Services 5, 141–148 (2003); Philip M. Sinaikin,
Coping with the medical model in clinical practice or “How I learned to stop worrying and love DSM,”
Journal of Critical Psychology, Counselling and Psychotherapy, 204–213 (2004).

41
.
http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/USpstfab.htm
.

42
. Kimberly S. Yarnall, Kathryn I. Pollak, and Truls Ostbye,
Primary care: Is there enough time for prevention?
American Journal of Public Health 93, 635–641 (2003).

43
. Larry Eliot and Daniel Atkinson,
The Gods That Failed: How Blind Faith in the Markets Has Cost Us Our Future
(London: Bodley Head, 2008).

44
. James Spence,
The Purpose and Practice of Medicine
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1960).