Currently viewing the category: "60 Minutes"

Easy Ain’t Always What it Seems

By On · Add Comment · In 60 Minutes, antidepressants, depression, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), placebo, prescription drugs, selective publication, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)

60 Minutes did a great piece over the weekend on the business of depression–that’s right, BIG business–and whether the product that’s being sold to America (and the rest of the western world) is actually doing what it’s supposed to. Some experts (myself included) believe that the popular (read: highly prescribed) depression drugs–the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)–don’t do a whole lot for people that are moderately depressed, and the data seems to back up that notion.

However, antidepressants continue to be some of the most prescribed drugs in the U.S., and most of those people fall in the center of a bell-shaped curve. In other words, most people taking antidepressants probably aren’t getting much from them, as Harvard psychologist and researcher, Irving Kirsch articulates in the video. According to his research, many of the studies that show antidepressants not doing much more than placebo have been hidden by the manufacturers who lead the studies.

We call this selective publication, and I’ve been reporting on this phenomenon within the antidepressant manufacturing industry for over four years. In 2008, research showed that only one third of the studies conducted on SSRI antidepressants ever made its way out to the public. Can you guess which third gets published?

In the 60 Minutes piece below, you’ll see Dr. Thomas Laughren, FDA Director of the Division of Psychiatry Products rationalize why it only takes two favorable studies–even if ten come back unfavorable–for a drug to get approval by the FDA. Oddly, he doesn’t mention “cha-ching $$$” anywhere in the piece. Hmmm…

Listen, I’m all for big business–a capitalist to the core–but there’s something wrong with pushing a drug onto millions of people, including children as young as six years old, when it isn’t doing exactly what it’s supposed to. And I wouldn’t care except there is also evidence that some of the side effects aren’t benign, or whether they are permanent. And that’s playing with people’s lives.

Again, I do not pull the public out of the equation because too many people are looking for an easy way out–and antidepressants sure promise that. Watch the piece below to see why easy ain’t always what it seems to be.

Widely-Used Medicine Kills 22,000

By On · Add Comment · In 60 Minutes, Bayer, dialysis, diet, exercise, health, heart, kidney failure, magic bullets, open heart surgery, Trasylol

Just another very big reason to take care of your health while you still have it: Magic bullets don’t always work; and often, they can turn deadly. Take for instance the latest news coming out of the 60 Minutes newsroom. In an interview to be aired next Sunday, a medical researcher has disclosed that 22,000 lives were lost due to complications of a drug used to stem bleeding during open heart surgeries.

According to researcher Dr. Dennis Mangano, an observational study he conducted showed that the drug Trasylol, manufactured by Bayer AG, was linked to kidney failure and death. The scary part is that Trasylol, one of the most widely-used drugs of its kind, was used on one-third of all open heart surgeries during the drug’s “height”. Worse yet, in his study, Dr. Mangano recommended discontinuing the use of Trasylol and that the drug be recalled. Doh!

But wait, it gets better: Bayer, the German pharmaceutical company, well-known for its aspirin, also knew of the link between Trasylol and kidney disease…but withheld the information from the FDA. Nice. Cha-Ching!

Once again, just another big reason to take care of your health now. Your heart needs proper caring and maintenance–through diet and exercise–just like all your organs do. Yeah, I know we all know this–but is everyone doing what they need to do in order to keep their hearts ticking? If you’re not, then you’re flirting with disaster. Just imagine going in for a heart bypass and coming out with dialysis. The major point here is that nobody is going to care for your health as much as you do. Period. Some companies will have no remorse to make money at the expense of your safety–you’d better believe it. So if you don’t care for your heart like its your most valuable asset, then don’t expect anybody else to, either–not Bayer; not your surgeon; not your insurance agent; not your Congressman; not your next President, no matter who that might be; not anyone. You’d better believe that.

Copyright © 2013 Dr. Nick Campos - All Rights Reserved.