British National Health Service Goes After American Website
A few of you likely know of Dr. Bonkers, the Bonkers Institute and its website. Bonkers–aka Ben Hansen–has tirelessly catalogued pharma ads for psych meds for four years and recently posted some National Health Service brochures he obtained that are alarming. In them, children, teens and young adults are basically told to shut up and take their meds–Zyprexa, Risperdal and Strattera (links are to the brochures). In making them publicly available, Hansen has apparently angered the NHS which contact him and asked him to edit out much of the brochure from his website. Hansen refused (see the exchange below).
Some of the language in the brochures is interesting. I’ll focus on the Zyprexa brochure.
“Your Medicine is called Olanzapine. Pronounced ‘o-lan-za-peen.’
“Many children, teenagers and young people need to take medicines prescribed by doctors to help them stay well and healthy.”
Here’s a question for NHS: On what basis do you argue that Zyprexa–oops, Olanzapine–keeps children healthy? What randomized clinical trial proves this in children? Is it even approved for use in children and teens in the UK? If so, for what? Even Lilly’s UK website doesn’t say. Or are you in essence helping off-label market to kids and teens?
Then:
“When you first start taking olanzapine it may make you feel a bit sleepy, but this should wear off after a few days. It may make you feel like eating more food. If this happens, try not to eat more than usual, and talk to an adult or your doctor about this.
“How long do I need to take olanzapine for? You will need to keep taking olanzapine until your doctor tells you to stop. It helps to keep you well, so you should keep taking it even if you feel better.”
That kind of rot speaks for itself. The other brochures strike a similar tone. Now check out what the NHS’s deputy chief pharmacist told Hansen:
“Could I please request that you amend the site so that it is no longer possible to access the whole leaflet — the front page and our contact details would be appropriate. I’m sure you appreciate that the only way that we will be able to produce more materials for patient benefit is by recouping the cost from other organisations which want to use them — our objective is provide written materials to support the verbal counselling given by healthcare professionals — they are not meant to stand alone as sources of information. We charge a reasonable fee for full access to all the children’s leaflets and so it not in our interest, or necessarily, patients and parents to have access to them on your website without the professional support intended.”
Wow, the British government charges for these brochures? I wonder what groups use them and under what circumstances. And don’t you just love the irony of the British government trying to censor an American website? Good luck with that!
Hansen replied:
“We posted the NHS leaflets to stimulate public scrutiny of your agency. We call upon the NHS to stop promoting harmful psychotropic drugs for children. In a spirit of full disclosure and transparency, we have now posted your letter as well.”
You can read the emails at the bottom of each link above. (Via opednews.com.)
I call upon Hansen to continue to make such advertisements and brochures available. If any of you have “interesting” brochures and whatnot from the US, UK, Canada, Australia or wherever, feel free to pass them along to me or Dr. Bonkers.
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Posted in Furious Seasons