What are you doing tonight?
Maybe this:
What: A Night With the Writers of Philadelphia Weekly (Cassidy Hartmann, Dan McQuade, Steve Volk and Liz Spikol)
When: Thurs., Nov. 30. 6pm.
Where: Kelly Writer’s House, 3805 Locust Walk, on Penn’s campus
If you need more info, get in touch. For the bios of the people reading, click here.
Liz | 3:53 PM | Uncategorized
P. Dawdy on BP Squared
Philip Dawdy, of Furious Seasons, has been blogging about atypical antipsychotics like Seroquel for about a year now. He’s also written about it for his former employer, Seattle Weekly. This is his response to my discussion with HS:
the other guy to take a look at on seroquel is calabrese. he’s on the same papers often and has been a public mouthpiece for az. i think HS is giving docs too much credit for being disinterested, and he needs to keep in mind the huge side effect problems around atypicals that have come out in the CATIE study.
Dawdy will be following up on all of this soon. Meanwhile, see the below to get a sense of his perspective:
Note About Clinical Studies or Bipolar is a Hot Field
Seroquel Works…Er, About Half the Time
Seroquel For Bipolar Disorder And Oh So Much More
Liz | 3:07 PM | Uncategorized
Breaking: Unpleasant-tasting powered drink has mental illness
Crystal Light’s Sweetener Schizophrenia
Liz | 1:19 PM | Uncategorized
HS responds to BP Squared
Several points:1.Dr. Yatham is no doubt a consultant/promotional speaker for multiple drug companies-not just AZ. (In waht way was he “compelled” to admit his AZ links- he didn’t fess up willingly? These guys dip into as many wells as they can. The larger question is whether federally funded or academically appointed physicians should be barred from any association with drug companies during their tenure/appointment.
2.The ultimate recommendations regarding medication is always based on non-biased double blind research. If the concern is that such findings are manipulated and dishonest then the number of “rotten apples” involved is huge. The number of safeguards in such research is impressive. Money is obviously a big draw but in theory science is science.
3. The overriding issue seems to be whether drug companies’ concern for profit trumps their desire to produce effective products. I submit that the efficacy and safety of current psychotropics versus those of 50 years ago answers that. When one ignores the economics (new meds are much much more expensive) current antidepressants and antipsychotics are clearly better.
To answer HS’ concerns: Yes, I know many doctors receive funding from many different sources and wouldn’t be able to do key research without said funding. This doesn’t lessen, to me, the conflict of interest in certain cases. Yatham’s primary affiliations seem to be with AZ; therefore his endorsement of AZ’s medication appears to be tainted by self-interest. I am aware that’s holding someone to a pretty high standard, but why not? At medical conferences the list of disclosures (where I found info about Yatham; he was forthright) is always lengthy, but there are a few doctors who don’t accept pharma money at all. Would I pay more attention to their assessment of a drug? As a layperson, yes.
Also, Yatham would be dismissed as a promotional speaker for AZ (very different from receiving funding) if he said negative things about its meds. Given that the vast majority of promotional speakers receive money in exchange for their services, it would be in Yatham’s best interest to quell his doubts and amplify his praise.
Does this mean Yatham’s career is suspect? Of course not. Sounds to me like he’s done lots of very good work. But I don’t believe such relationships can be easily untangled. As an editor and journalist who has to be hypervigilant about conflict of interest, such ties are exceedingly uncomfortable. I know clinicians are held to different standards than reporters, but I’m not persuaded they should be.
I was a promotional speaker for AZ for a while, so I got a sense of how they operate. I never took any money from them, but I stopped doing speaking gigs for them as soon as I realized I’d have to write about Seroquel’s deficiencies. It’s almost impossible to maintain a positive relationship with a company when you’re criticizing them. Lunches last a lot longer when everyone’s happy.
Liz | 12:59 PM | Uncategorized
BP Squared: A new series!
And now, ladies and gents, introducing a new feature here on TTWS: Big Pharma and Bipolar, aka BP Squared. The focus, for the moment, will be on the continuing expansion of Seroquel’s indications for bipolar disorder. I think if we pay careful attention, we’ll be able to see the evolution of Seroquel from relatively unknown medication for psychosis to household-name treatment for bipolar disorder. Though I take Seroquel, I do so for psychosis, not for bipolar depression or mania.
Now, the latest from DGNews.com, says Canadians are also getting in on the act:
Updated Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) guidelines have been issued for the management and treatment of patients suffering from bipolar disorder. The guidelines consider Seroquel™ (quetiapine fumarate) as a first-line single medication for bipolar depression and a second-line option for the management of bipolar II depression1. Seroquel is currently licensed for ‘the treatment of depressive episodes associated with bipolar disorder’, in the United States only.
Emphasis mine.
“We felt that the data from BOLDER I and BOLDER II were so strong that it merited inclusion of Seroquel as a first-line option for bipolar depression in these guidelines ” said Dr. Lakshmi N Yatham, MD, primary author of the CANMAT Guidelines and Professor of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
And just who is Dr. Yatham? A doctor who last year was compelled to disclose the following: He receives funding from AstraZeneca (makers of Seroquel), has acted as consultant for them, is on the promotional speakers bureau of AZ as well as the CME speakers bureau of AZ. I think those facts speak for themselves.
Updated Bipolar Disorder Guidelines include Seroquel as a first line therapy for Bipolar Depression on strength of BOLDER I and II data
Liz | 11:21 AM | Uncategorized
Hero of the day: Margaret Trudeau
This is the second time I’ve named Margaret Trudeau “Hero of the Day.” She keeps speaking out, and we should be thankful for that. From Newsdurhamregion.com:
On Wednesday, the former wife of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was the keynote speaker at an open house hosted by Whitby Mental Health Centre (WMHC), where she discussed her battle with depression, the death of her 23-year-old son, Michel, and her quest for physical and spiritual treatment that has led her now to lead a balanced, happy life.
“I’m astonished that I’m here,” Ms. Trudeau, 58, said. “Six years ago I was in a psychiatric hospital in Ottawa, very close to death, because I had been slowly starving myself. I was overwhelmed by the death of my husband, and previously to that of my child, Michel, and I couldn’t stand on my own feet. I couldn’t take of myself. I could hardly breathe.”
Trudeau candid about bipolar disorder
Liz | 9:17 AM | Uncategorized
Reading as a form of therapy
The Great Escape
What do you do when you can’t be here? Read.
by Liz Spikol
Sometimes when I’m bored and alone in my apartment, I do odd half-yoga poses while I read out loud to myself in an English accent. It’s not an accent that would convince any natives, but it’s a persuasive mix of Emma Thompson and the BBC Newshour.
Tonight I watched a truly underwhelming version of Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley, and it made me want to talk in that accent again. I think it’s because when I see a period piece like that—especially one based on a book I love—I wish I could live inside it, no matter the tiresome carriage rides, the lack of modern plumbing and the inconvenient matter of consumption and fever.
I’d willingly surrender my messy romances and intergender warfare to the disenfranchisement of the chauvinist Victorian era, if only I could get some rest. Even now as I type on my clickety-click white Mac keyboard, I imagine each letter sounds like a horse’s hoof hitting the cold stone street, and I need only step outside to be pulled into that gray and misty London of whalebone corsets and awkward meetings under umbrellas.
I’ve lately thought my desire to thrust myself into another world—to escape the stupid song of my cell phone, the goofy ding of my email alert, the bleat of the oven timer and the techno crunch of the gym music—may be an incipient sign of depression.
But I can’t say the desire to escape my reality is a new impulse. It started mundanely in the late ’70s, with Judy Blume’s Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. I’ll never forget being curled up on the sofa, willing to live without food and without air so long as I didn’t have to put that book down. “Ah,” I thought. “So this is what life is all about. Reading.”
Liz | 3:02 PM | Uncategorized
Phillyites: Come to see me!
This is from my colleague, Steve Volk. If you’re in town, we’d love to see you.
A few years back Rolling Stone music editor, book author and New
York Times contributor Anthony DeCurtis started teaching a course on
writing about the arts at the University of Pennsylvania. He’s been quite pleased to see former students landing full-time employment at PW, as well as a whole lot of them turning up as interns
and freelance writers.
In an effort to thank us for that and publicize the relationship in some small way, he asked us to give a
reading this Thursday, at 6 p.m. So the lineup is: staff writer Cassidy Hartmann, blogger D-Mac, Liz Spikol and myself.
Anthony has asked me to play host, which means reading my own work as well as introducing everyone else.
The event is free.What: A Night With the Writers of Philadelphia Weekly
When: Thurs., Nov. 30. 6pm.
Where: Kelly Writer’s House, 3805 Locust Walk, on Penn’s campus
If you need more info, get in touch. Here are the bios of the people reading:
Cassidy Hartmann graduated from Penn in 2005 and has been working at the Philadelphia Weekly for a year and a half. She began as a staff writer, but is now also PW’s film editor. For her weekly column “Out of Towner,” she interviews real and quasi-celebrities of her choosing.
Daniel McQuade is a 2004 Penn graduate. While majoring in English, Daniel spent nearly 50 hours a week at the offices of the Daily Pennsylvanian, eventually serving as the paper’s Sports Editor and later the managing editor of 34th Street Magazine. Daniel, now a staff writer at Philadelphia Weekly, writes the award-winning blog “Philadelphia Will Do” for the paper. He is also a member of the Society for American Baseball Research.
Liz Spikol, a Philadelphia native, is the senior editor of Philadelphia Weekly. She writes the column “The Trouble With Spikol” as well as the (cleverly named) blog “The Trouble With Spikol,” which focuses on mental healthcare issues. As a writer she contributes to the news, music and arts sections on a regular basis. As an editor, she corrects her mistakes.
Steve Volk is perhaps the one person left at the Philadelphia Weekly who did not graduate from the University of Pennsylvania (though he is planning to pick up a UPenn sweatshirt when he gets around to it). [Hey! I didn't either!] He writes mostly about drugs, crime and the courts, but he sometimes veers into the ether, including a recent cover story about a local demon hunter. He has also been published in Rolling Stone, Men’s Journal and Vibe magazines.
Liz | 2:58 PM | Uncategorized
Feel like hiding? We Make Money Not Art has just the thing.
Thanks to Sara G. for this tip. It’s the HideAway Cozy, which is kind of Temple Grandin, but maybe for the rest of us. I think it would work really well for a sit-in, where you’re forced to make savvy political conversation for hours at a time. Even an activist needs escape.
Liz | 1:23 PM | Uncategorized
Song of the day: “Rosemarie”
When I get depressed, I sometimes do odd things to either A) make myself cry, or B) cheer myself up. This week I wrote a spiritual called “Rosemarie” then sang it into the camera and made a video of it. I posted it on YouTube, where people will no doubt critique it in a way that’s sure to either A) make me cry, or B) cheer me up.
I present it to you with a little added context: My pet, whose name is actually Rosemary, is a tiny cute marsupial who likes to play in my closet. Sometimes she gets on the highest shelf, where I can’t get her down. She gets very devoted, suddenly, to my sweaters. So I sing her a little song—a hymn, if you will—to induce her to come down and go into her pretty little homecage. This never works, but I keep trying. In fact, it seems to drive her further into the sleeve of a turtleneck. Everyone’s a critic, you know?
Liz | 12:24 PM | Uncategorized
