We were idly perusing www.WhiteHouse.gov, the President’s web site, when we came across a press release from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology dated September 25, 2012, about “Innovation in Drug Discovery and Development.” It has an interesting quote:
“…treatments for psychiatric diseases, which impose a tremendous burden on society, are frustratingly limited in their efficacy…”
The full report further says that, “…many major pharmaceutical companies are closing down or severely curtailing drug discovery programs…”
Unfortunately, the report recommends “doubling the output of innovative new medicines that meet critical public health needs over the next 10 to 15 years,” and “…the creation of a public-private ‘Partnership to Accelerate Therapeutics,’ involving representatives from the bio-pharmaceutical industry; the academic biomedical research and ethics community; physician societies and pharmacists; patient-focused research foundations and advocacy groups; healthcare providers and insurers; and the Federal Government.”
Without fully understanding the reasons why drugs are not effective for mental distress, nor the actual harm that these drugs do, they yet blindly recommend not just finding more of these drugs, but also accelerating their discovery, manufacture, and use in society.
Did you think the psychopharmaceutical industry was just going to roll over and die because we recognize the harm, the fraud, and the abuse?
You might want to express your opinion about psychiatric treatments, particularly psychiatric drugs, to your local, state and federal officials, to the White House, to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and to the authors of this particular press release. Then let us know who you contacted, briefly what you said, and what they said in response. Find Out! Fight Back! Do It Again!