Doug Bremner's Blog, page 11
August 2, 2016
Time to Die! (Oops! I Mean Time to Quit!)
I was sitting in my car dealership today waiting to get service on my car and working on my laptop while the television was droning on in front of me. I mean this is one of the rare times when I watch TV without the benefit of Tivo to pause the commercials or otherwise avoid […]
July 31, 2016
News You Won’t Find in the NY Times
Here’s a forgotten chapter from pharmaceutical history. The acne drug, Accutane (isotretinoin), manufactured by Roche Pharmaceuticals, has been associated with hundreds of birth defects. Since 2005 the iPLEDGE program has required that patients, doctors, and pharmacists register and that patients prove they are on birth control before they can be prescribed this potentially dangerous drug. […]
July 30, 2016
Can You Please Put Some Sugar on This Crap?
I was reading the NY Times this weekend when I saw a story about a celebrity dermatologist who had a SWAT team descend on her office and arrest her for illegal use of narcotics (Percocet). Seems she had been writing prescriptions for the nanny and popping a few each evening to relax. Something about “celebrity […]
July 28, 2016
I’m Still Not Getting Flu Shots
Oops! I forgot, my employer, Emory University, actually requires me to get a flu shot. So I guess that’s not really true. In 2008 I was asked to give a talk at Emory Hospital on “Why I’m Not Getting a Flu Shot this Year” which was based on a chapter in my book that had […]
July 27, 2016
Accutane Made Me Do It
[repost from the original post on beforeyoutakethatpill.com on October 3, 2007] I was interviewed this morning by WLS-TV in Chicago about the case of a man who admitted to killing his dermatologist, claiming that the acne medication Accutane made him do it. I referred to our study of 28 acne patients that showed that […]
July 25, 2016
If They Don’t Kill Us They Will Drive Us Crazy
Merck joins the rosters of pharmaceutical companies like Hoffmann La Roche that make drugs that, if they don’t kill you, at least will drive you crazy. Roche has specialized for years in making drugs with psychiatric side effects like depression and suicidality, including Accutane (acne), larium (malaria), and Tamiflu (bird flu). Chantix (smoking cessation, Pfizer) […]
July 4, 2016
Psychiatric Side Effects of Levaquin
See me talk about the drug industry and our film “The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg” at the link below and view our kickstarter campaign here. 6.25.10
July 3, 2016
Do Antidepressants Make You Suicidal?
During my residency days Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) like fluoxetine (Prozac, Sarafem), paroxetine (Paxil), fluvoxamine (Luvox), citalopram (Celexa), and sertraline (Zoloft), were pushed as being better than older drugs like imipramine, since they specifically acted on the serotonin transporter, and therefore didn’t have many of the side effects that were said to result from […]
