… the disgusting, injurious corruption of medical knowledge in America.
[T]he $310 billion pharmaceutical industry quietly buys … the contents of medical journals and, all too often, the trajectory of medical research itself.
[Continuing medical education courses are] pedagogic playdates [that] familiarize doctors with pharmaceutical companies’ patented products to the exclusion of cheaper and sometimes safer and more effective alternatives.
[A Canadian bioethicist says:] “Many psychiatric medications are little more than placebos, yet many clinicians have come to believe that SSRI [selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, a newer class of antidepressants] drugs are magic, all through the suppression of negative studies.”
[Another observer calls much of the content of our medical journals] “little better than infomercials.”
[At least] 50 …Elsevier journals appear to be Big Pharma advertisements passed off as medical publications.
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UD thanks Adam for the link.
June 4th, 2011 at 10:45AM
Have you seen this article:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jun/23/epidemic-mental-illness-why/
in the latest NYRB? Angell’s summary of the argument in Irving Kirsch’s book just left me feeling entirely gobsmacked.
June 4th, 2011 at 2:47PM
Thanks, MattF! I hadn’t seen this. Reading it now.
June 8th, 2011 at 7:22AM
Elsevier journals also are very expensive for universities, who nowadays are sort of forced to buy expensive “all inclusive” packages for all journals in a field – many of which may be low quality.