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Home > Books > Self-Help > Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients
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Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients
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By Ben Goldacre
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 (181 Reviews)
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List Price: $697.60
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Our Price: $25.00
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You Save: $672.6 (96%)
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Availability:
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Available for immediate delivery.
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Publisher:
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Harper Collins
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Published:
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2012 |
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Binding:
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Paperback
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews:
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 factors not mentioned - failure of those who run trials to look after those participants who experience bad outcomes. Th, May 13, 2017
By Frank Mundo
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Clinical Trials are still a scandal. Add to items mentioned here (non-registry of Trails, non-reporting of all results to ALL the medical community... factors not mentioned - failure of those who run trials to look after those participants who experience bad outcomes. The time has come for alternative forms of testing and assumption that those who stand to benefit from Trials pay the freight of those who volunteer their health (and in some instances their lives) for the benefit of all (including and especially "Big Pharma."
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EVERYBODY should read this book., April 04, 2017
By Michael Falls
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EVERYONE who has anything to do with pharmaceuticals, in any way, should read this book. Lord knows you shouldn't ever consume any with out knowing what Goldacre reveals in this book. He's a doctor, not a professional writer, so don't expect perfect form, BUT, everbody should read this because they/we all need to know what he is telling. The title tells it all.
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"The Conquest of Sane ... ", March 14, 2017
By Smiley McGrouchpants
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"The idea that depression is caused by low serotonin levels in the brain is now deeply embedded in popular folklore, and people with no neuroscience background at all will routinely incorporate phrases about it into everyday discussion of their mood, just to keep their serotonin levels up. Many people also don't know that this is how antidepressant drugs work: depression is caused by low serotonin, so you need drugs which raise the serotonin levels in your brain, like SSRI antidepressants, which are 'selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors'. But this theory is wrong. The 'serotonin hypothesis' for depression, as it is known, was always shaky, and the evidence now is hugely contradictory ... But in popular culture the depression-serotonin theory is proven and absolute, because it has been marketed so effectively. This is not a belief that arose spontaneously out of nowhere: it has been carefully fostered and maintained."
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Some people work. These people don't.
They party! Sort of like Thomas Frank -- "I think I know!" He missed this.
The Baffler? Dumb as hell; someone tell Greg Lane how to get a job.
Elliott Smith? Dead as a doornail.
The "best minds of my generation"? NOBODY ... DID ... NOTHING!
I'm glad somebody might know that -- other than spoiled brats at the University of Chicago -- an awful lot of Generation X had to choke down this s*** in lieu of post-Freud, non-19th Century therapy, at great cost, while paying rent, growing, and trying to keep their lives together.
Academics have real jobs in front of them. They should do *those*, not what's convenient, or "fun," or hip. It's called "work" when you discharge what's in front of you.
(PS: I know this seems arbitrary, picking on the idiots who knew better when nobody could at the time, but, when *true work* is not done, it's twice as heavy to figure out, later. I've lost friends, time, and money paying double-rent for this crap, and aside from Goldacre or people you'd have to know personally -- one old girlfriend ended up in a halfway house, saw raw-nervy I couldn't even talk to her without "triggering" her -- nobody, it seems, is striking new ground on this failure of compassion, intellect, and common sense.)
This book explicates -- all too well -- how (to use a military term) "mission creep" takes over what the companies and regulators originally were intended to do, in a way that mirrors our current moment with the revolving door private-and-public sectors here in America making oversight unpopular, and thereafter impossible (or what you might simply call not possible).
He outlines a lot of solutions, too. Whether they will be heeded remains to be seen.
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 Book quality was fine., November 22, 2016
By Hank Dirkins
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Preachy and idealistic. Book quality was fine.
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Never be fooled by so-called "evidence based mumbo jumbo" ever again. (And see Jesus and George Carlin at the end of thi, September 19, 2016
By Virgil
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Evidence based medicine is a term held near and dear, but evidence based research, studies etc. are not based on anything positive- all the so-called evidence is distorted in dozens of crucial stages including drug regulation and laws supposed to protect people.
1) New drugs are not needed, just more expensive and/ or replacements of less new dangerous drugs, or don't work well.
2) Data is purposely skewed to favor benefits. Bad trial data is lost or unreported.
3) Tests on humans are done in third world countries with less than ideal patients for the purpose of the drug
4) Regulators do not do their job as there is a big financial conflict of interest.
5) Doctors are either fooled or paid to push these drugs
6) Most doctors don't even know the difference between Relative Risk and Absolute Risk- big problem as this is the main way that drug's benefits are falsely increased and risks reduced- but it is all just distortion or statistics.
The big problem is that nobody in the industry wants to do anything about it. And if they try then they will be lambasted and thrown out of their medical society. We see the same thing happening with politics today- speak up and you are finished.
There are many more 'tricks of the trade' that are either deliberately used or become convenient loopholes in every stage of a drug's production and marketing that get used by scientists, regulators, academics and doctors either knowingly, knowingly with the acceptance of money or increased job status to further their interests.
Medical journals, for example are not published or edited by the serious scientific minds that we are led to believe- these magazines are either literally owned by the pharma companies themselves or bought with different forms of bribery.
The process from a drug's invention (usually a "me too" copy of a molecule) to it's marketing is filled with loopholes that have zero concern for the health or well being of the patient. In fact most drugs since the 1970s are only "invented" as a means to make more profit.
This book more than confirms my fears, doubts, and criticisms of medicine I've had my whole life, experienced and studied. And it is a very good reference for all the claims. As the author states, the main reason why people are so impressed and willing to be herded like cattle to slaughter when it comes to trusting medicine, is due to the fact that most people hate effort, especially when it comes to dry material and understanding statistics and systematic review. If it can't be explained in one sentence then most people are not interested.
The bottom line is that health is your main concern and drugs will never ultimately save you- only your diet and lifestyle can do that. Yet I am all too convinced that most people do not want to be helped- they just want to remain either helpless victims or they are just too stubborn to put the change and effort in to at least help their own situation, but becoming more aware of their own body and health,. Just like alternative medicine-another group of dubious individuals- people love to swallow a miracle pill and just let their faith guide them without ever gaining any genuine awareness of reality. That is fine with me- this is a free society to so what you please- just that the drug and supplement industry are not transparent, so that the majority of effortless people will unfortunately be misled and as a result suffer much harm, as we see with this health crisis.
At best we can look forward to the missing data becoming published in the public domain so that people can at least look at it. But few will do this. And, sadly, even IF the pharma system corrects the dozens of problems that mislead doctors and harm patients, most of the drugs that people take are based on the old system anyway.
I have little faith is any system, and am committed to helping people yes, but as Jesus said, "You have to save yourself".
2000 years later George Carlin added, "Ya gotta wanna"
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Evidence-based book, August 24, 2016
By Christopher Rosenfelt
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The author provides an evidence based perspective to the the problems in the medical-pharmaceutical-research industry while being as objective as he can and shying away from hyperbolic sensationalist half-truths. The author clearly documents when evidence is weak and is mostly expressing an opinion. Highly recommend as a way to obtain "the other side of the story" which is promulgated to the average person through the marketing efforts of the pharmaceutical industry as well as the blind trust in their doctor.
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