We Need to Talk About Doctors
Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) came into favor in the wake of thalidomide as a method to evaluate drugs and their risks.
They were supposed to...
Mother Sues Pfizer for Alleged Zoloft-Related Birth Defects
The latest in a series of Zoloft-related birth defect lawsuits was filed in St. Louis yesterday, by a firm that claims to represent hundreds...
Women on SSRIs Less Likely To Breastfeed
In a prospective cohort study of 466 pregnant women over 10 years, researchers at the California Teratogen Information Service found that women exposed to...
Breaking Scandal
This series of blogs outlines a scandal that brings out the limitations of RCTs and evidence based medicine. Here are the first four installments, with two more to come shortly.
Surviving Schizophrenia: A Memoir
I was diagnosed with schizophrenia when I was just nineteen. I am forty-three now, and I have recovered – and I use the term...
What Do Psychiatrists Say When They Talk to Each Other?
Last week I attended a lecture presented at the Department of Psychiatry Grand Rounds at a major Southeastern University. The presenter, a psychiatrist employed...
Lawsuit Filed for Alleged Zoloft-Related Birth Defects
Lawyers in St. Louis have filed a lawsuit against Pfizer that alleges 18 children were born with birth defects caused by the antidepressant Zoloft...
The Taint of Eugenics In NIMH-Funded Research Today
Recently, Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, identified the “NIMH’s Top 10 Research Advances of 2011.” He wrote: “This has been a year of exciting discoveries and scientific progress . . . Here are 10 breakthroughs and events of 2011 that are changing the landscape of mental health research.”
Pfizer Files to Consolidate Birth Defect Lawsuitsd
With at least 59 lawsuits pending over birth defects allegedly caused by Zoloft, Pfizer moves to consolidate litigation near its headquarters in New York.
Read...
SSRIs Increase Risk of Pulmonary Hypertension In Newborns
Swedish researchers have found that pregnant women who take SSRI antidepressant after gestational week 20 more double the risk that their babies will suffer...
Rethinking Brain Research In Psychiatry
The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA is one of the premier centers for brain research in the country, and so when the...
June 27, 2011
Dear Bob--
I have been working again, taking temporary assignments filling in for other physicians and working in urgent cares while I get my practice...
June 17, 2011
Bob--
Here is a letter that I wrote several months ago in response to an early reader of my blog here. She expressed concern about...
December 15, 2010
Bob--
I saw a thirty-four year old woman today for a follow-up visit regarding post-partum depression. She delivered her second child two months ago, and...