Can You Please Put Some Sugar on This Crap?

I had some time I didn't expect to have yesterday since my anticipated appearance on Fox's Mike and Juliet Show to talk about the link between the acne medication Accutane and depression and suicide was canceled, so I thought I'd write about how my day was going so far. I guess someone told Fox that they are getting a lot of advertising dollars from the pharmaceutical industry, and what I had to say might not make some people happy. At first they asked if I would like to go on the show and "debate" someone. When I didn't seem too excited about that they said they would "get back to me" and then later left me a voice message saying that I wouldn't be going on the show but that I would be "credited" for my work. So I checked out the clip on the internet, and low and behold Fox set up the story by starting out with a family's complaints about Accutane causing their son to commit suicide, followed by an attractive dermatologist named Cheryl Karcher, MD, who sat there in her white coat and said "I'm soooo sorry for the Zimmers but there is no evidence that Accutane causes depression or suicide."

Well, I thought to myself "who the hell is this person?" I mean, she didn't even offer any reasons for her opinion, and we are just expected to sit back there and say "OK!" Was she a researcher? What was the basis for her opinion? I asked myself. So I looked up her bio on the internet and found that she was a "nationally recognized expert" whose qualifications included acting as a consultant to the Miss Universe Contest! The bio went on to state that "Articles detailing the results of Dr. Karcher's research have been published in numerous peer-reviewed scientific journals including The New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of Investigative Dermatology, and The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology." Well I looked her up on pubmed and I couldn't find any articles that she had written. Then I realized that by saying "results of her research" might indicate that she was part of a clinical trial but wasn't listed as an author of the paper.

Like the 5,000 authors of the advantage trial of Vioxx? Pretty misleading!

Next FOX-y Juliet said "after the break, see pictures of what your brain looks like on Accutane." Well I thought, that's great, maybe we'll get a little more balance in this story. Little did I know that the worst was yet to come. After showing images of my brain scans showing how Accutane is associated with a decrease in function of the frontal lobe, a part of the brain that regulates emotion, they had a psychiatrist named Petros Levounis, MD, come on the show and state that yes, Accutane changes your brain function, "but I 100% agree with Dr. Karcher that there is no evidence that Accutane causes depression or suicide." Again, stated with absolutely no reason for his opinion! A quick check of Dr. Levounis's profile showed four publications, none of which were about Accutane.

I mean, viewers are supposed to look at the victim family and look at the doctor and say "OK, poor family but the doctor says there's nothing there, so I'll believe the doctor."

I have presented the evidence elsewhere that Accutane is associated with depression and suicide. So if people want, they can go read it themselves. I have never met anyone who wasn't on the payroll for Roche who has read the evidence who doesn't agree, and I have never met any dermatologist who could look me in the eye and tell me that she never had a patient become depressed or feel like they were in a haze while on Accutane.

So there you have it, folks. Out-FOXed again. That is how the media presents things to you. Nothing is ever "proven" and there are always two viewpoints that balance each other out.

So, the next time you turn on your tube to feed yourself, why don't you send FOX an email asking "Can you put some sugar on that crap you're feeding me?"

I guess we got it, sort of, with Dr. Karcher.

Comments

[libbygirl]

I don't think that suicide and depression are the only problems that are caused by the use of Accutane. My daughter took Accutane for 6 months about 10 years ago and quit taking it because of severe depression but she has suffered with alot of other health problems since taking it. She researched it online and found that there were alot of other people who were complaining of similar problems since using Accutane. Although these problems aren't as horrific as suicide, they are distressful, painful and don't go away. It did clear up her skin problems but at what cost to her health?

[zizyphus]

Pharma companies think they own the airwaves now, they buy so much of it. At 60, I have decided it is safest to stay as far away from pharmaceuticals as possible. Herbs can provide the best relief for many common ailments without dangerous and lasting side effects. In fact, all you have to do is read the side effects on the label to realize that if you take the drug, you may be worse off than before. Why gamble, when so many herbal possibilities abound?

But sadly, the herbal lore and wisdom of the ages that got us to where we are today as a species, is being lost. A good resource book is The Green Pharmacy by Dr. James Duke. He is the one who developed the Phytochemical database for the USDA.

[wolfgangmo]

As often as I see it, I am always shocked by the shear number of professionals who decide to become whores.

[NABNYC]

Yes, Fox is awful, but in this regard not so different from any of the other stations. The biggest culprit here are the drug companies who bribe our politicians to let them do anything they want and to pass laws so they are never held responsible when they sell drugs that injure or kill people.

For example, when do we begin seeing the news coverage about all the women in this country who have breast cancer because of taking hormones pushed on them by the drug companies and by their doctors? What explains the silence on that topic? Nary a peep. Is it that most of these women have died, so there's no one left to interview? Or is it that it's "only" women, so who cares?

Drug companies are among the biggest liars in their advertising too. Have you ever seen a "rep" for a drug company? It's like a pimp/stable relationship, with all these really good-looking young people, male and female, going out to suck up to the doctors, get them to be the first-line drug pushers, like the kid sitting out on the stoops in the inner cities.

This whole industry cries out for: regulation. We need Democrats in office. And then we need laws to stop them from taking bribes from drug and other companies.

[Doug Bremner - Huffpost Blogger]

Good comment. Most people don't realize it but as we speak our government is getting ready to take away our right for redress for ANY injury caused by a prescription medication. You can read about it in my previous post on this site.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/doug-bremner/no-redemption-for-preempt_b_124227.html

Yes it is a crime what they did to women with hormones. Tens of thousands of women died with no benefit. This is the usual game plan: 1) convince a target sector of the population that they "need" something or will benefit, 2) use doctors to hype it under the cover of "science/medicine/breakthroughs", 3) argue that clinical trials are delaying "life saving medicines" or are unethical because we all know how great it is anyway, 4) pay millions in marketing, 5) make people think they are "bad" or not taking care of themselves if they don't take it, 6) attack doctors with alternative opinions, draw out the time period for your blockbuster, 7) put your head in the sand when the sh*t hits the fan and pretend like it never existed (we already made our billions anyway

[cameodoc]

"Tens of thousands of women died with no benefit. "
Really? Prevention of osteoporosis, reduced rate of colon cancer, relief from sometimes disabling menopausal symptoms. Certainly the decision whether or not to use postmenopausal hormone replacement is more complex than originally presented, but hormones are not without great benefit to some women.

[mbaty]

Maybe Fox doesn't want to bite the hand that feeds it. And if we want real news, I guess we'll have to stick to the internet--sites like this and Factcheck.org etc. And thanks for telling the truth and thinking analytically.