Overdosed America

Overdosed America PDF Author: John Abramson
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060568534
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 362

Get Book

Book Description
Using the examples of Vioxx, Celebrex, cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, and anti-depressants, Overdo$ed America shows that at the heart of the current crisis in American medicine lies the commercialization of medical knowledge itself. Drawing on his background in statistics, epidemiology, and health policy, John Abramson, M.D., an award-winning family doctor on the clinical faculty at Harvard Medical School, reveals the ways in which the drug companies have misrepresented statistical evidence, misled doctors, and compromised our health. The good news is that the best scientific evidence shows that reclaiming responsibility for your own health is often far more effective than taking the latest blockbuster drug. You -- and your doctor -- will be stunned by this unflinching exposé of American medicine.

Overdosed America

Overdosed America PDF Author: John Abramson
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060568534
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 362

Get Book

Book Description
Using the examples of Vioxx, Celebrex, cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, and anti-depressants, Overdo$ed America shows that at the heart of the current crisis in American medicine lies the commercialization of medical knowledge itself. Drawing on his background in statistics, epidemiology, and health policy, John Abramson, M.D., an award-winning family doctor on the clinical faculty at Harvard Medical School, reveals the ways in which the drug companies have misrepresented statistical evidence, misled doctors, and compromised our health. The good news is that the best scientific evidence shows that reclaiming responsibility for your own health is often far more effective than taking the latest blockbuster drug. You -- and your doctor -- will be stunned by this unflinching exposé of American medicine.

American Overdose

American Overdose PDF Author: Chris McGreal
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1541773772
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 381

Get Book

Book Description
A comprehensive portrait of a uniquely American epidemic -- devastating in its findings and damning in its conclusions The opioid epidemic has been described as "one of the greatest mistakes of modern medicine." But calling it a mistake is a generous rewriting of the history of greed, corruption, and indifference that pushed the US into consuming more than 80 percent of the world's opioid painkillers. Journeying through lives and communities wrecked by the epidemic, Chris McGreal reveals not only how Big Pharma hooked Americans on powerfully addictive drugs, but the corrupting of medicine and public institutions that let the opioid makers get away with it. The starting point for McGreal's deeply reported investigation is the miners promised that opioid painkillers would restore their wrecked bodies, but who became targets of "drug dealers in white coats." A few heroic physicians warned of impending disaster. But American Overdose exposes the powerful forces they were up against, including the pharmaceutical industry's coopting of the Food and Drug Administration and Congress in the drive to push painkillers -- resulting in the resurgence of heroin cartels in the American heartland. McGreal tells the story, in terms both broad and intimate, of people hit by a catastrophe they never saw coming. Years in the making, its ruinous consequences will stretch years into the future.

Sickening

Sickening PDF Author: John Abramson
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 1328956989
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Get Book

Book Description
The inside story of how Big Pharma’s relentless pursuit of ever-higher profits corrupts medical knowledge—misleading doctors, misdirecting American health care, and harming our health. The United States spends an excess $1.5 trillion annually on health care compared to other wealthy countries—yet the amount of time that Americans live in good health ranks a lowly 68th in the world. At the heart of the problem is Big Pharma, which funds most clinical trials and therefore controls the research agenda, withholds the real data from those trials as corporate secrets, and shapes most of the information relied upon by health care professionals. In this no-holds-barred exposé, Dr. John Abramson—one of the foremost experts on the drug industry’s deceptive tactics—combines patient stories with what he learned during many years of serving as an expert in national drug litigation to reveal the tangled web of financial interests at the heart of the dysfunction in our health-care system. For example, one of pharma’s best-kept secrets is that the peer reviewers charged with ensuring the accuracy and completeness of the clinical trial reports published in medical journals do not even have access to complete data and must rely on manufacturer-influenced summaries. Likewise for the experts who write the clinical practice guidelines that define our standards of care. The result of years of research and privileged access to the inner workings of the U.S. medical-industrial complex, Sickening shines a light on the dark underbelly of American health care—and presents a path toward genuine reform.

Overdosed America

Overdosed America PDF Author: Dr. John Abramson
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062281437
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 327

Get Book

Book Description
“Overdosed America reveals the greed and corruption that drive health care costs skyward and now threaten the public health. Before you see a doctor, you should read this book.” —Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation Using the examples of Vioxx, Celebrex, cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, and anti-depressants, Overdosed America shows that at the heart of the current crisis in American medicine lies the commercialization of medical knowledge itself For twenty years, John Abramson, M.D., cared for patients of all ages in a small town north of Boston. But increasingly his role as family doctor was undermined as pressure mounted to use the latest drugs and high-tech solutions for nearly every problem. Drawing on his background in statistics and health policy research, he began to investigate the radical changes that were quietly taking place in American medicine. At the heart of the crisis, he found, lies the changed purpose of medical knowledge—from seeking to optimize health to searching for the greatest profits. The lack of transparency that has become normal in commercially sponsored medical research now taints the scientific evidence published in even our most prestigious medical journals. And unlike the recent scandals in other industries that robbed Americans of money and jobs, this one is undermining our health. Commercial distortion pervades the information that doctors rely upon to guide the prevention and treatment of common health problems, from heart disease to stroke, osteoporosis, diabetes, and osteoarthritis. The good news, as Dr. Abramson explains, is that the real scientific evidence shows that many of the things that you can do to protect and preserve your own health are far more effective than what the drug companies' top-selling products can do for you—which is why the drug companies work so hard to keep this information under wraps. In what is sure to be one of the most important and eye-opening books you or your doctor will ever read, John Abramson offers conclusive evidence that American medicine has broken its promise to best improve our health and is squandering more than $500 billion each year in the process.

Dopesick

Dopesick PDF Author: Beth Macy
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1788549368
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 495

Get Book

Book Description
Now a major TV series on Disney+ 'A shocking investigation... Dopesick is essential' The Times 'Unfolds with all the pace of a thriller' Observer 'A deep – and deeply needed – look into the troubled soul of America' Tom Hanks 'Essential reading' New York Times Beth Macy reveals the disturbing truth behind America's opioid crisis and explains how a nation has become enslaved to prescription drugs. This powerful and moving story explains how a large corporation, Purdue, encouraged small town doctors to prescribe OxyContin to a country already awash in painkillers. The drug's dangerously addictive nature was hidden, whilst many used it as an escape, to numb the pain of of joblessness and the need to pay the bills. Macy tries to answer a grieving mother's question – why her only son died – and comes away with a harrowing tale of greed and need.

Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic

Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309459575
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 483

Get Book

Book Description
Drug overdose, driven largely by overdose related to the use of opioids, is now the leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States. The ongoing opioid crisis lies at the intersection of two public health challenges: reducing the burden of suffering from pain and containing the rising toll of the harms that can arise from the use of opioid medications. Chronic pain and opioid use disorder both represent complex human conditions affecting millions of Americans and causing untold disability and loss of function. In the context of the growing opioid problem, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched an Opioids Action Plan in early 2016. As part of this plan, the FDA asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a committee to update the state of the science on pain research, care, and education and to identify actions the FDA and others can take to respond to the opioid epidemic, with a particular focus on informing FDA's development of a formal method for incorporating individual and societal considerations into its risk-benefit framework for opioid approval and monitoring.

Our Daily Meds

Our Daily Meds PDF Author: Melody Petersen
Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books
ISBN: 142994403X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 448

Get Book

Book Description
In the last thirty years, the big pharmaceutical companies have transformed themselves into marketing machines selling dangerous medicines as if they were Coca-Cola or Cadillacs. They pitch drugs with video games and soft cuddly toys for children; promote them in churches and subways, at NASCAR races and state fairs. They've become experts at promoting fear of disease, just so they can sell us hope. No question: drugs can save lives. But the relentless marketing that has enriched corporate executives and sent stock prices soaring has come with a dark side. Prescription pills taken as directed by physicians are estimated to kill one American every five minutes. And that figure doesn't reflect the damage done as the overmedicated take to the roads. Our Daily Meds connects the dots for the first time to show how corporate salesmanship has triumphed over science inside the biggest pharmaceutical companies and, in turn, how this promotion driven industry has taken over the practice of medicine and is changing American life. It is an ageless story of the battle between good and evil, with potentially life-changing consequences for everyone, not just the 65 percent of Americans who unscrew a prescription cap every day. An industry with the promise to help so many is now leaving a legacy of needless harm.

Death in Mud Lick

Death in Mud Lick PDF Author: Eric Eyre
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 198210533X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book

Book Description
A New York Times Critics’ Top Ten Book of the Year * 2021 Edgar Award Winner Best Fact Crime * A Lit Hub Best Book of The Year From a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter at the Charleston Gazette-Mail, a “powerful,” (The New York Times) urgent, and heartbreaking account of the corporate greed that pumped millions of pain pills into small Appalachian towns, decimating communities. In a pharmacy in Kermit, West Virginia, 12 million opioid pain pills were distributed in just three years to a town with a population of 382 people. One woman, after losing her brother to overdose, was desperate for justice. Debbie Preece’s fight for accountability for her brother’s death took her well beyond the Sav-Rite Pharmacy in coal country, ultimately leading to three of the biggest drug wholesalers in the country. She was joined by a crusading lawyer and by local journalist, Eric Eyre, who uncovered a massive opioid pill-dumping scandal that shook the foundation of America’s largest drug companies—and won him a Pulitzer Prize. Part Erin Brockovich, part Spotlight, Death in Mud Lick details the clandestine meetings with whistleblowers; a court fight to unseal filings that the drug distributors tried to keep hidden, a push to secure the DEA pill-shipment data, and the fallout after Eyre’s local paper, the Gazette-Mail, the smallest newspaper ever to win a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, broke the story. Eyre follows the opioid shipments into individual counties, pharmacies, and homes in West Virginia and explains how thousands of Appalachians got hooked on prescription drugs—resulting in the highest overdose rates in the country. But despite the tragedy, there is also hope as citizens banded together to create positive change—and won. “A product of one reporter’s sustained outrage [and] a searing spotlight on the scope and human cost of corruption and negligence” (The Washington Post) Eric Eyre’s intimate portrayal of a national public health crisis illuminates the shocking pattern of corporate greed and its repercussions for the citizens of West Virginia—and the nation—to this day.

Gosnell

Gosnell PDF Author: Ann McElhinney
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1621574903
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Get Book

Book Description
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE OPENING IN THEATERS EVERYWHERE “This book is a public service.” — MICHELLE MALKIN, founder of Twitchy and author of Culture of Corruption “Every American needs to read Gosnell.” — DAVID DALEIDEN, the Center for American Progress reporter behind the undercover investigation of Planned Parenthood "Ann and Phelim courageously tell the heart wrenching, shocking story previously ignored, one that every American needs to read." — KATIE PAVLICH, Townhall Editor and Fox News Contributor. He is America’s most prolific serial killer. And yet Kermit Gosnell was no obvious criminal. Through desperate attempts to cover up the truth, the mainstream media revealed exactly how important Kermit Gosnell’s story is. National best seller Gosnell: The Untold Story of America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer is a book that rocked America – and now it is a major motion picture! Masquerading as a doctor and an advocate for women’s reproductive health, Kermit Gosnell was purposefully ignored for years. Gosnell reveals that inside his filthy clinic, Gosnell murdered born-alive infants, butchered women, and made a chilling collection of baby feet. Meanwhile, pro-choice politicians kept health inspectors far away. Only when tenacious undercover detective Jim Wood followed a narcotics investigation straight into the clinic did Gosnell’s reign of horror finally come to an end…and the fight for justice begin. Written by investigative journalists Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer, this gripping story premiers October 12 as a major motion picture, starring Dean Cain as Detective Wood. Fans of the movie – and every pro-life American – should dive into this nationally bestselling book for a closer look into the shocking and gruesome crime of the century. Gosnell: The Untold Story of America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer reveals…. How Kermit Gosnell would eat cereal or snack on sandwiches – while performing abortions. How Gosnell carelessly allowed “that Indian woman,” Karnamaya Mongar, to die a bloody death. How Gosnell’s employees admitted to snipping the necks of hundreds of breathing babies. How Tom Ridge, a “pro-choice” Republican governor, put a stop to Pennsylvania Health Department inspections for seventeen years. How Sherry West, the clinic employee whose mental health problems, drug addiction, and Hepatitis C infection, were well known to Gosnell, overdosed, maltreated, and abused patients for years. How new mother and prosecutor Assistant District Attorney Christine Wechsler found herself having to cut open the skulls of forty-seven dead babies during the investigation. How the pro-abortion media blacked out what should have been the trial of the century – and how they were finally shamed into covering the case. Why Kermit Gosnell, unrepentant murderer, expects to be vindicated by history.

The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids

The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309453070
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 487

Get Book

Book Description
Significant changes have taken place in the policy landscape surrounding cannabis legalization, production, and use. During the past 20 years, 25 states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis and/or cannabidiol (a component of cannabis) for medical conditions or retail sales at the state level and 4 states have legalized both the medical and recreational use of cannabis. These landmark changes in policy have impacted cannabis use patterns and perceived levels of risk. However, despite this changing landscape, evidence regarding the short- and long-term health effects of cannabis use remains elusive. While a myriad of studies have examined cannabis use in all its various forms, often these research conclusions are not appropriately synthesized, translated for, or communicated to policy makers, health care providers, state health officials, or other stakeholders who have been charged with influencing and enacting policies, procedures, and laws related to cannabis use. Unlike other controlled substances such as alcohol or tobacco, no accepted standards for safe use or appropriate dose are available to help guide individuals as they make choices regarding the issues of if, when, where, and how to use cannabis safely and, in regard to therapeutic uses, effectively. Shifting public sentiment, conflicting and impeded scientific research, and legislative battles have fueled the debate about what, if any, harms or benefits can be attributed to the use of cannabis or its derivatives, and this lack of aggregated knowledge has broad public health implications. The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids provides a comprehensive review of scientific evidence related to the health effects and potential therapeutic benefits of cannabis. This report provides a research agendaâ€"outlining gaps in current knowledge and opportunities for providing additional insight into these issuesâ€"that summarizes and prioritizes pressing research needs.