Once Again, I Appear to be a Big Pharma Ho
I think I’ll stop speaking to reporters about Seroquel and AstraZeneca because, though I talked at length to journalist Andrew Eder about AZ being unethical, he was only able to include this in his article in the Delaware News Journal:
There’s no question that Seroquel has been a vital treatment for many mentally ill patients. Liz Spikol, an [executive editor] at Philadelphia Weekly, has taken Seroquel for about 10 years as part of a treatment regimen for bipolar disorder. She said she has seen few side effects from the drug.
“Because of my particular experience with my illness, it was absolutely a miracle drug, and I’ve been on it ever since,” Spikol said. “It’s been basically the cornerstone of my treatment.”
Yet Spikol, who writes the mental illness blog The Trouble With Spikol, said her experience is not typical of bipolar patients, since her illness includes psychotic features.
Eder’s article is thorough, but I was a little disappointed that I came across as a Seroquel advocate without any reservations. Not his fault — he had a lot of ground to cover — but just something I need to be aware of when I talk to the press.
Dawdy was also quoted:
Philip Dawdy, a Seattle journalist who has chronicled the issues surrounding the atypicals on the blog Furious Seasons, said it would “open a floodgate of problems” if AstraZeneca is allowed to market Seroquel for depression.
Dawdy, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1989, said he took Seroquel for a little more than a year for agitation and sleep problems, but he quit taking it when he developed symptoms of tardive dyskinesia, an involuntary movement disorder that is a potential side effect of antipsychotic drugs.
Although Dawdy said Seroquel is appropriate for some patients, he thinks the drug has been prescribed too widely with too little information about what it does to patients over time.
“Docs have got to be judicious in using this, and really look at how it works in the long term,” Dawdy said.
The reality is that Seroquel should not be prescribed for children and it should not (in my non-clinical opinion) be prescribed for depression. I told Eder this. I also told him that I severed my ties with AZ when I found they had been hiding the negative effects of Seroquel, which are being litigated currently, as he writes:
In addition to the state lawsuits, AstraZeneca is facing more than 8,500 personal-injury lawsuits from Seroquel patients who say they developed diabetes or related injuries from the drug. The lawsuits include 680 cases in Delaware Superior Court.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys say they believe the evidence at trial will prove that AstraZeneca hid the risks that Seroquel could cause high blood sugar levels, weight gain and diabetes. The drug maker, along with the other manufacturers of the atypicals, added a warning about the risk of hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar, and diabetes to Seroquel’s label in 2004 at the FDA’s urging — almost seven years after it was approved.
AstraZeneca defends drug’s soaring sales
Liz | 11:40 AM | Uncategorized
Hi Liz,
As someone who knows you irl, the last thing you are is a Ho!
That said, Eder’s article could have been brilliant. He interviewed the best and brightest (not to mention my own two muses) for his article.
But something left me hollow after reading it. I cannot quite put my finger on it, this is probably why I took Creative Writing courses instead of Journalism ones.
I, as you know, co-facilatate a peer run support group for uni and bipolar people. I’ve been doing it for 4 1/2 years. And we get questions about Seroquel, and almost everyone has had bad side effects from the drug.
Cept me. Other than the strangest dreams - like what would happen if Peter Max, Roy LIchtenstein and Yellow Submarine had a baby together- the drug did what it was supposed to do.
Maybe because my diagnosis is BP1 and schizoaffective?
I don’t know. All I do know is what I say in meetings. Something like Penicillin doesn’t work for everyone, your meds are the same way, and you need to bring this up with your pdoc.
Take care.
They’re trying to pit two of our best and brightest (i.e., you and Dawdy) against each other. Typical media.
(Uh, whoops, I was a reporter for four years myself. Sorry.)
LOL: Pharma Ho and Pimp Dawdy, the bipolar duo
Now we just need to queue that swingin’ 60’s fight scene music and toss in a few BIFF!’s and WHAM!’s for the right effect!
As for articles that describe how BAD a medicine is, at least this listed the good it can do (and you are not a “ho” for being the example). There are so many articles about how bad Zyprexa and Seroquel are (and I will admit they can have some pretty serious side effects that the makers played down too much), but there is usually no mention about the number of people that are significantly help by these medications. Put the good and the bad together so we can put the usefulness in perspective.
Also, the article you refer to mentioned the comparison of atypicals with the typical perphenazine (sp?) in the CATIE trials. Those trials only compared those with schizophrenia. I am curious how bipolar patients would fare with a typical as opposed to the atypicals. From what I have learned in the literature, the only typical studied was haldol for treating bipolar. The problem was that haldol could a switch to depression. But I don’t know if any of the other typicals were tested in this manner. At least the atypicals aren’t known for making this switch (in fact they help with depression).
I ramble on too much. Interesting article. I would agree with you that atypicals shouldn’t be used in children, not until the medical community knows more about the bad and good with them.
Thanks for the blog. It is entertaining and informative!
liz, you came off fine as far as i could tell and you didn’t seem a pharma ‘ho at all.
Way back when, when knights were bold, I was diagnosed as Bipolar II with extra bits. I’m forty-two now, with a fantastic tolerance for large quantities of almost anything: legal or not drugs, alcohol, self-loathing, etc.
This means that about once a year I “crash” and spend two to three months on a psyche ward. Just as I don’t recall how many E.C.-”Treatments” I had, (over twenty in a few weeks), I don’t recall when I started Seroquel.
I started with 100mgs in the a.m. and 200mgs in the p.m.
As I have been able to streamline my meds over the past few months; this has been decreased. I only take the night-time dose. I tried halving that, but I got freaky within two days.
I do love the vivid dreams that I have, even if they are awful. I feel as if I am seeing another world that exists beyond ours. That I am being given a technicolour quantum leap to the future.
I don’t know which of the meds that I’m on curbs my hallucinations best. But I know that Seroquel is good for me.
I have high blood pressure, a problem aggravated by weight gain from meds and PTSD. But my blood-sugar is fine, despite the ice-cream! My grand-mother had diabetes and died of colon cancer.
But I digress.
I am a serious fan of Seroquel. But, the problem really lies with our society”s regard to mental health.
Most psyche meds take four to six weeks to take effect. This is rediculous. If a pain med took this long to work, it would not be on the market. The medical community needs to address the fact that they have let mental health and well-being be left in the dust.
It’s insane that we require people who are mentally ill to get up, put a smile on their face and face life without adequate medical and societal support. If a person was in as much physical pain as some of us are mentally, they would be bed-ridden at best.
My name is Paul Harris and i would like to show you my personal experience with Seroquel.
I am 47 years old. Have been on Seroquel for 2 weeks now. I would NOT recommend this drug to anyone except those who only want to sleep all the time. Very poor!
I have experienced some of these side effects-
This drug knocks you out. Slept 17 hours with 200 mg dose the first time. Even 100 mg. makes me tired, dizzy, clouded mind, slurred speach and etc. all day.
I hope this information will be useful to others,
Paul Harris
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