How Drug Companies Communicate Information with You
I’ve been hearing some talk in the drug industry about how they desire to better communicate with patients and consumers. I’ve also become aware of some companies exploring blogs as a way to reach consumers and market to them.
I’m quite wary of these types of approaches - but I have a personal interest in this because I blog here, and having an emergence of “marketing” blogs or worse - splogs (spam blogs) will only hurt the credibility of blogs in general.
That said, I’m wondering how you’d want drug companies to communicate information with you as a patient. What should they do to make you believe that the information they have presented to you is “fair balanced” and is not a promotional spin?
If you have any thoughts or ideas on this, please comment here or please email me at mhsourcepage@gmail.com .
UK Mental Health Worker Opens Up About Bipolar Disorder
BBC News Online published a story about Robert Westhead, a 33-year old National Institute of Mental Health (NIHME) worker who suffered from bipolar disorder.
Robert began experiencing symptoms at age 19 and became seriously ill with severe mood swings. His moodswings happened in cycles of 8 days where he would be manic for 8 days and depressive for 8 days. Robert described some of the symptoms of mania and depression that are common among bipolar disorder sufferers; feelings of grandeur (”I was on a divine mission seeing God personified in a black dog and the eyes of a cat”), needing very little sleep, racing thoughts - before crashing down and bursting into tears at various moments.
Robert’s story was important in illustrating that sometimes patients can forget what it felt like to feel “normal” that when he was in a mildly depressed state from cutting back medication dosage. Essentially, Robert stabilized at a depressed level and thought it was a normal mood until he began to experience physical pain from the depression. Then, Robert came to a dangerous state of becoming suicidal. He attempted suicide from a lithium overdose.
Robert took another year to stabilize with different drug combination and eventually finding an effective combination for him.
Treating Depression in Pregnant Women
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a Public Health Advisory on treating depression in pregnant women, because doctors and moms-to-be have to weigh the risks and benefits of antidepressants during pregnancy.
A risk of stopping antidepressants for a patient suffering from depression and taking depression medication is that the patient may experience a relapse. Earlier this year, researchers studied pregnant women who stopped taking their antidepressant medication during pregnancy and pregnant women who continued taking their antidepressant medication during pregnancy. Women who stopped their meds were 5 times more likely to suffer from depression relapse than women who continued antidepressants during pregnancy.
Another study suggested potential risks from SSRI class of antidepressants taken during pregnancy. Pregnant women who took antidepressants during pregnancy gave birth to babies that were 6 times more likely to suffer from a condition called persistent pulmonary hypertension (PPHN). This is a serious and life-threatening lung condition where the blood pressure of the babies’ lungs are very high and cannot get enough oxygen into their blood. The caveat is that this is a small study and additional studies have not yet been conducted to confirm the findings of this study. Late last year, the labeling for paroxetine (Paxil or Seroxat) was changed to reflect findings that use of this drug during the first trimester may be linked to increased risk of heart birth defects.
The FDA is advising that pregnant women on antidepressants should not stop taking their medication without first seeing their doctor, and weighing carefully the risks and benefits of continuing medication treatment during pregnancy.