“It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgement of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.”
Dr Marcia Angell
Clearly there’s a debate to be had when it comes to the amount of drugs that are prescribed in the treatment of mental ill-health … and the scientific validity behind such prescriptions.
In this vein it’s well worth watching a report presented by Sharyl Atkisson of WJLA News (based in USA). The report is part of its investigative Full Measure News and includes an interview with Dr. Marcia Angell, ex-editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, and now at Harvard University.
Amongst other things Dr. Angell says:
“I came to the New England Journal of Medicine in 1979. Starting about then was when you saw the drug companies assert more and more control until finally they, over the next couple of decades, they began to treat the researchers as hired hands. They would design the research themselves. You know, you can do a lot of mischief in how you design a trial. Or we’ll test this drug and we’ll tell you whether it can be published or not, and so if it’s a positive study, it’s published, if it’s a negative study, it’ll never see the light of day.”
You can watch the report here.
