Prof who heads UK National Addiction Center involved in "conflict of interest."

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/professor-who-wrote-coalition-health-policy-was-paid-by-drugs-firm-2325928.html

 

It appears Professor John Strang was paid by "Genus", makers of lorazepam. He wrote the report for the  NTA/NAC = National Treatment Agency For Substance Misuse/National Addiction Center in which the guidelines for tapering tranquilers would be 8-10 weeks with a 6 month ceiling.

 

"On our side" Parliament member Jim Dobbin, and ex-tranq victom John Perrot are now trying to get the reports invalidated.

 

Thanks chiggy, I got this from inside one of your links.

You are on top of it VG!  Boy, just when you think you have it bad, you find someone who has it worse.  How about that Josh Jarrett?  What a horror story that one is.  Can you imagine?  The poor guy has never really known what it feels like to be normal, only what it feels like to be on benzos, for 49 freakin years?!!

49 years of Benzo use?

Sorry Ziggy, benzo brain.  50-8=42.  He was put on benzos at age 8 and he is now 50 years old.  So he was on benzos for a total of 42 years.  He was started on Librium at age 8, then switched to lorazepam at age 11.  Did I miss anything?

Sorry Ziggy, benzo brain.  50-8=42.  He was put on benzos at age 8 and he is now 50 years old.  So he was on benzos for a total of 42 years.  He was started on Librium at age 8, then switched to lorazepam at age 11.  Did I miss anything?

 

Nope, John Jarrett is 50 years old and has been trying to get off benzos for years. He was started on them at 8 years old for being 'overly active'. I hope these new dedicated treatment centres for benzo patients are going to get funding in the UK so that people like John will have an opportunity to have a comfortable place to withdraw.

 

Hey, VancouverGirl thanks for putting that link up. I couldn't find it.

Sorry Ziggy, benzo brain.  50-8=42.  He was put on benzos at age 8 and he is now 50 years old.  So he was on benzos for a total of 42 years.  He was started on Librium at age 8, then switched to lorazepam at age 11.  Did I miss anything?

 

Look at my post LOL!!  Not only could I not count, but I called Siggy 'Ziggy'!   Living proof of how bad cog fog can get, right?

 

Thanks Nicolette for checking my facts, Some days I am obviously losing it! 

Sorry Ziggy, benzo brain.  50-8=42.  He was put on benzos at age 8 and he is now 50 years old.  So he was on benzos for a total of 42 years.  He was started on Librium at age 8, then switched to lorazepam at age 11.  Did I miss anything?

 

Look at my post LOL!!  Not only could I not count, but I called Siggy 'Ziggy'!   Living proof of how bad cog fog can get, right?

 

Thanks Nicolette for checking my facts, Some days I am obviously losing it! 

 

Lol, Perseverance, that's funny! You wouldn't believe some of the words I have to use spell check for. It takes me forever to string a set of words together too....at least now I know why.

"...You wouldn't believe some of the words I have to use spell check for."

 

Sadly I would!

Perseverance and Nicolette funny one for ya concerning cog fog...I was writing a paper a little more than a page long and decided to proofread it....astoundingly I found a few sentences I was shocked about and how they got there.....lmao..........damn..

Ya, zombie, mine is especially bad with writing, but sometimes my benzo brain can't even think of the simplest words. I hear it all comes back though. 

Perseverance and Nicolette funny one for ya concerning cog fog...I was writing a paper a little more than a page long and decided to proofread it....astoundingly I found a few sentences I was shocked about and how they got there.....lmao..........damn..

 

Maybe the Benzo Reaper wrote them?    

 

(That is what I call this alter ego that has infiltrated our minds!)

There is just too much money being made off benzos to spread around and keep politicians "in line."  What scares them even more than loss of revenue from a massive redcution in script writing is how much it would cost to clean this mess up.  A solution to the benzo addict problem will not come from politicians or regulatory agencies.  I know how much respectable effort there has been to change this from the top down but I truly believe this epidemic ends when the masses are scared into never taking the stuff to begin with.

 

Christopher

I know how much respectable effort there has been to change this from the top down but I truly believe this epidemic ends when the masses are scared into never taking the stuff to begin with.

As much as I would like to see change from the top down showing that government is doing their job by listening and supporting the few politicians, doctors, and ex- benzo victoms who try to keep this in the forefront using UK as example, your statement seems much more realistic. 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/07/02/137572941/harvard-punishes-3-psychiatrists-over-undisclosed-industry-pay

 

Another conflict of interest, this one in the US. This article is from NPR, I found it through rxrights.org

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/07/02/137572941/harvard-punishes-3-psychiatrists-over-undisclosed-industry-pay

 

Another conflict of interest, this one in the US. This article is from NPR, I found it through rxrights.org

Boy this is a whole other thread Nicolette. This is just awful to read.

 

A little exerpt from your link:

 

Drs. Joseph Biederman, Thomas Spencer and Timothy Wilens stood accused of accepting more than $4.2 million from drug companies for psychiatric research and other activities between 2000-2007 without reporting the income to Harvard, MGH or the federal government.

 

===

 

4.2 million. How bout that. Over a 7 year period.

 

$600,00.00 dollars a year split between the 3 psychiatrists. An extra salary bonus of $200,000.00 each per year for 7 years.

 

==

 

-Here's their lax penalty:

 

The three will also undergo training on conflict-of-interest and will suffer "a delay of consideration for promotion or advancement."

 

Let's look at what Dr. Beiderman, 1 of the 3 psychiatrists involved is known for.

 

**The accusation carried more weight because Biederman is a leading proponent of the off-label use of antipsychotic drugs to treat bipolar illness in children. His work is widely seen as contributing to an explosive growth in such prescriptions, and much of his support came from companies that benefited from his research.

 

And the three together:

 

Biederman and the other two psychiatrists have also published extensively on the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. (one of the most common childhood disorders and can continue through adolescence and adulthood.)

 

==

 

Paid high dollar$ to write papers and drug children.

 

Here's what they said when caught: "Our mistakes were honest ones," the doctors say in their letter.

I know VG, I know, thank you for spelling it out... :tickedoff: