How Brainwashed Are We by Big Pharma?

     You know you’re about to be taken for a ride into the clutches of Big Pharma when you read the headline of an Associated Press article published this week: Top FDA drug official is trying to hire a friend who’s seeking a bold new warning on antidepressants.

     Despite the Associated Press declaration that it is an unbiased, independent, non-profit news cooperative, this headline immediately denigrates FDA drug regulator, Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg, before we even learn any facts of the case. Suggesting she’s hiring someone because he’s a friend, not because he’s a competent clinician, is an attempt to bias us against the good doctor even before we read this “news.” In fact, Dr. Adam Urato – the “friend” in question – is a maternal-fetal medical specialist with a substantial track record of accomplishments.

     Why are he and Dr. Hoeg being so targeted? 

     Because both these high ranked doctors believe that, given the recent clinical evidence, antidepressants might adversely affect pregnant women and their fetuses. Therefore, a stronger Black Box warning about those risks should be printed on bottles of Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, and other comparable generic antidepressants.

     “I think women should be informed about the potential risks so that they have time to come off SSRIs if they want to when they’re trying to get pregnant,” Dr. Hoeg told the hosts of a recent Mom Wars podcast.

     Sounds pretty sensible, right? After all, fifteen percent of American women take antidepressants.

     But it’s not sensible if you’re Big Pharma and you worry that your astronomical drug profits will be cut into by unruly, pregnant women deciding to cancel their prescriptions for antidepressants.

     The Associated Press article then quotes psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Payne, a University of Virginia reproductive psychiatrist, as their “authority.” “A black box warning is a big red flag with both practitioners and patients,” she says. “What’s missing in this petition is an understanding of the risks of maternal mental illness during pregnancy.”

     Oh, yes. There are far too many women – pregnant or not — suffering out there from mental illness. Let’s not make them afraid to take an antidepressant. It’s their only lifeline to mental health.

     This is the standard Big Pharma party line: Because there are so many people out there suffering from mental illness – and who knows how many more we haven’t even diagnosed yet, they say – we can’t deprive these poor souls of their psychotropic meds just because a few alarmist critics are trying to alert us to the dangers of our psychotropic drugs.

     So Big Pharma spokesperson Dr. Payne’s proclamation is hardly unexpected. She’s a psychiatrist, after all. (By the way, what in the world is a “reproductive psychiatrist”?)

     What should be unexpected is the Associated Press putting out such a covert hit piece on Drs. Hoeg and Urato. The article cites none of the recent studies that do suggest actual dangers to pregnant women from antidepressants. And there’s no factual content about Dr. Hoeg doing anything to “hire” Dr. Urato, other than using him, appropriately, as a a pregnancy expert consultant.

     It is true that they are long term associates — hardly surprising seeing they work in the same medical specialty field — and, as Dr. Urato says, they’ve become friendly over their years working together, just as many other of his associates have become “friends,” as well. That’s hardly uncommon in such situations.

     So why such a hit piece? Is it because Big Pharma is secretly funding AP?

     Apparently not, per the financial records publicly available. AP is exceptionally clean financially and does not accept any of Big Phrama’s $7 billion advertising payments to other media outlets.

     No, unfortunately this “hit piece” is due only to the long term brainwashing by Big Pharma of the conventional American mind. This is how too many people think these days, even those at news agencies like AP with a decent reputation for objectivity. Since the 1980s their coverage of medicine and health policy and has become so indoctrinated by pro-Big Pharma think – just like so many other Americans – that they don’t recognize when they have strayed so far from journalistic objectivity.

     If you can only think with Big Pharma’s implanted foundation of pro-psychiatry gobbledy- gook, you’re no longer going to be able to see what is actually out there.