Comments by Pia Brandt Danborg

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  • I agree, with both of you. I did not perform animal studies. I did a systematic review and meta-analysis collecting the evidence from studies, that others performed. I id this only to show that animal studies are weak evidence as they were poorly performed. Thus the trials were sad to say a waste of money and animals. I want this to change one way or the other. However, besides this I also work to help people help themselves, so they will never enter the psychiatric system. In that way pills are not needed and then neither is the research. I personally hope for these drug companies to declare bankruptcy some day.

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  • In our research we used studies with animals that were not primed for any certain trait or behaviour. We used non-modeled animals. We did not think that adding one drug or operation or genetic modification would give the best answer to the results of being exposed to a psychiatric drug. There we used healthy animals.
    However, that being said, this research was made to try to make animal research responsible, if animal research has to be the step before human trials. Then do not waste resources and animal lives by doing flawed research that does not aid to anything anyway.
    My own personal view is that we should not research these drugs anymore, not in animals and not in humans. They do not work, they cause tremendous harm and you cannot solve emotional distress with pills.
    One journal declined our manuscript because we did not divide the drugs according to mechanism of action. I thought that was a weak response to the decline. I am not interested in the mechanism of action, I am interested in what we see, when we watch the animal, no matter what mechanism of action might be described.
    These so-called mechanims of action are not to be trusted. Regulating one neurotransmitter affects the whole milieu, including all the other neurotransmitter in the are. It is the chemical imbalance theory being used as an argument again, despite the complete sillyness of it…

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  • I am sorry to hear that. And you are right, we cannot do a reading test in animals. But we can analyse the test that research whether drugs can improve reading difficulties with a critical mindset and always with an analysis of biases: study design, selective reporting, and so on.
    What the sparse literature on harms in animals shows is that there are reason to be careful with these drugs. And maybe a reading test is not necessary when we see that the behaviour of the animals is affected. Maybe that should be enough to make us stop and think it over again. I hope it will.
    I still fail to understand why drugs suddenly (?) is the solution to everything. Who set those norms in the first place?

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  • To my knowledge animal research is not at all banned. It seems that grants for preclinical research is on the rise. Do you have more information on your statement, I would love to learn more about the state of animal research.
    I agree with you on the ethical part of research – it seems to have vanished. All is about money and not the patient.
    And I ask as you do – is this the best we can do? Do we really need to be blinded like that? How come no one thinks for themselves any more? Where did the critical sense go? When did we just accepts the statement that drugs fix everything. It is scary.

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  • Oh, I completely agree that we do not need to research any more drugs. However, a lot of people disagree and still believe the chemical imbalance theory. And they dont listen to facts that goes against their belief, but they listen to different kinds of information. Still, to my knowledge, animal research is the foundation for doing clinical trials – and we therefore proceed to trials in humans on a biased foundation. Which is so wrong. So to open people’s eyes we need to make a constant and ever increasing pressure to make people see. At some point they cannot close their eyes any longer. But it takes time. And during that time animal research is still the foundation for doing clinical trials. So I work at various levels to make the dream come true that we dont research in drugs for mental illness anymore.

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