Pharmageddon by David Healy Page A

selling points of the Western way of doing things has not been the availability of consumer products such as Levi jeans so much as progress in health—our children have been less likely to die in infancy or childhood, our men and women less likely to succumb to a crabbed age and more likely to live beyond the traditional three-score and ten years. But there is a growing disenchantment with the Western way of doing things. And there is a growing likelihood that we in the West will be regarded as the new barbarians as we feed antipsychotic drugs to infants and envisage children as young as eight years old being put on drugs like the statins. Even though we have an increasing number of hospitals that look more like hotels, complete with gourmet meals and the latest online entertainment, there will be many who view these as the products of a healthcare system that is losing sight of some of the most precious things about being human, a system in which values are becoming valueless, a system in which ticking boxes is more important than trust in people, a system that, as a result, is losing its abilities to heal.
    After Cora descended into Hades, in the face of Demeter's insistence, Zeus buckled and she returned as Persephone, bringing life back to the planet with her. After a wondrous period of time in the middle of the twentieth century when we combined to force open the gates of Hades and rescue children who might otherwise have died, today's Demeters find themselves faced with pharmaceutical companies adept at using a mother's wish to get the best possible treatment for her family, including the child in her womb, to expand their markets. In a tale of almost mythic resonance in its own right, Estes Kefauver, using the example of children deformed by thalidomide, attempted to restore wonder and force Hades back but ended up being outflanked. If with Demeter we hold that care of the sort outlined in these pages is the heartbeat of our world, we need to take up Kefauver's cause and see it through. Whether that heart continues to beat is up to each of us.

Index
    The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
 
 
    Abbott Pharmaceuticals
    Abilify
    access to data: lack of, for clinical trials, restricted, in “controlled trials,” need for, and US Data Access Act
    ACE inhibitors
    acetanilide
    Actonel
    Adam, Christopher
    Advair
    agoraphobia
    AIDS
    Air Force, US
    Alzheimer's disease
    American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Journal of (JAACAP)
    American Association of Pediatricians
    American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP)
    American College of Obstetricians
    American Diabetes Association
    American Journal of Psychiatry
    American Medical Association (AMA), Council on Pharmacy Approval, Journal of (JAMA)
    American Psychiatric Association (APA), Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-III)
    amitriptyline
    amphetamines
    anemia
    angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors. See ACE inhibitors
    angiotensin receptor antagonists (ARBs)
    Antefebrin
    Anthony, Paul
    anthrax
    antibiotics. See also specific drugs; in children, clinical trials of, discovery and development of marketing of
    anticonvulsants
    antidepressants. See also SSRIs; specific drugs; for children clinical trials of in drug cocktails, guidelines for marketing of neurotransmitters and pain relief from patents on, during pregnancy prophylactic use of suicide on
    antihistamines See also specific drugs
    antihypertensives. See also diuretics; specific drugs; thiazide
    antipsychotics. See also specific drugs; for children and adolescents clinical trials of, guidelines on marketing of neurological side effects of suicidality on
    antiretrovirals
    antiseptic practice
    anxiety in children treatment of. See also tranquilizers; specific