Dr. Peter Breggin's Empathic Therapy Newsletter
	August 4, 2010 - Volume1, Issue 5

	In This Issue Is Pfizer Research Basis of "The Constant Gardener?" New Study Calls for Re-evaluation of Current Standard of Care for Depression Special Opportunity to Take Graduate Courses with Dr. Peter R. Breggin, MD Empathic Therapy EmpathicTherapy.org 1-607-272-5328			Dear [Contact.First Name], When I read author John LeCarre's The Constant Gardener I was curious about whether some real-life event had inspired his novel, which I found very moving.  Our first article delves into this question with some interesting speculation. We recently heard from the lead author of a new study that calls for the re-evaluation of current standards of care for the condition of depression.  Thanks to Dr. Pigott for contacting us and bringing his paper to our attention!  We reproduce the abstract below, with a link to his whole paper for those who want to read further. Dr. Peter Breggin is teaching a special graduate course on the Syracuse campus of Suny Oswego this Fall and for those who are interested it is time to enroll.  The classes are offered on Saturdays (and one Friday) making it easier for those who are working during the weekday to attend.  Please let us know if you need help with permissions, signup, and so forth. Finally thanks to all of you who have contacted us privately or who have visited our Peter Breggin author page on Facebook and who 'Like' us.  (That is a Facebook thing enabling someone to say hello to the author), for those of you who are unfamiliar with 'Facebook' land!)  Interesting discussions continue on the Facebook "Dr. Peter Breggin, author" site--come and join us! Very best, Ginger Breggin, Editor Come Join Dr. Peter Breggin's Empathic Therapy Network: Empathic Human Sciences and Services Our new Empathic Therapy reform organization is growing at an amazing rate--thanks to all of you!  We are establishing a kind of a 21st Century professional social site to compliment our Empathic Therapy organization.  Our professional social networking site will become a data repository for us all for our Empathic Therapy organization. This social site will provide us with fellowship and support and inspiration in between our annual conferences.  Anyone can come and join our Empathic Therapy social networking site. Administrators will approve blog, news, and video postings.  Folks who have become members can comment on others' blogs and join in the conversation.   I have named our site "Empathic Human Sciences and Services" and here is the link to the site:  http://empathic.ning.com/. As you will see folks can join, create profile pages, get to know one another, and share info.  I think the most powerful aspect of this site will be the blogs--anyone can read, and members can comment.  The powerful aspect of the 'architecture' of the NING network is that it is permanent so we can build a continuing data base of information over time (and over time we can learn more about organizing the data as it accumulates, too.)  Please visit our site, become a member and begin contributing now! Is Pfizer Research Basis of "The Constant Gardener" Tale? Rumor has it that a disastrous round of clinical trials of a meningitis drug in Nigeria sponsored by Pfizer is the basis of the story line in "The Constant Gardener," according to Jim Edwards, excellent blogger on Bnet.  More than eleven children died during the clinical trials that were conducted in the midst of a meningitis outbreak in this African country in 1996.   Pfizer claims that they obtained permission from the Nigerian government for the trials, but families of the deceased or injured children who participated in the trials contest this claim.   The families' suit has been allowed to move forward against the pharmaceutical giant by both a federal appeals court and the US Supreme Court.   But the larger issue that blogger Edwards illuminates is whether foreign clinical trials by international drug companies are adequately supervised and whether they result in safety standards that are acceptable when new drugs are brought to market.  The New England Journal of Medicine examined the Ethical and Scientific Implications of the Globalization of Clinical Research. The NEJM article concluded that the future of the pharmaceutical industry will be dependent upon how well ethical and scientific issues relating to foreign clinical trials are managed.  while globalization of clinical trials are here to stay, the article says, the quality, standards and integrity of the trials will need to be closely watched. The US Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission of the federal government are investigating four pharmaceutical giants conducting research in developing countries. Eli Lilly, Bristol-Myers Squibb, AtraZeneca and Baxter International are all under investigation.  The companies are suspected of bribery of foreign government officials as well as doctors and others who are conducting the on-site trials.  "When you have millions and billions [of dollars in play], someone is getting some kickbacks somewhere. It's low-hanging fruit, and that's all there is to it," said a defense lawyer who is representing one of the companies according to the article in the legal news website MainJustice. Read More:  Pfizer Clinical Trial Foreshadowed 'The Constant Gardener' MainJustice Exclusive: FCPA Pharma Probe Spans 3 Continents New Study Examines Current Research Status info Issues of Efficacy and Effectiveness of Antidepressants Dr. Edmund Pigott and his co-authors have published a new paper in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics titled "Efficacy and Effectiveness of Antidepressants: Current Status of Research."  The authors conclude from their study that the recommended standard of care for depression needs to be re-evaluated. The abstract of the paper follows: Methods: This paper reviews four meta-analyses of efficacy trials submitted to America's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and analyzes STAR*D (Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression), the largest antidepressant effectiveness trial ever conducted. Results: Meta-analyses of FDA trials suggest that antidepressants are only marginally efficacious compared to placebos and document profound publication bias that inflates their apparent efficacy.  These meta-analyses also document a second form of bias in which researchers fail to report the negative results for the pre-specified primary outcome measure submitted to the FDA, while highlighting in published studies positive results from a secondary or even a new measure as though it was their primary measure of interest. The STAR*D analysis found that the effectiveness of antidepressant therapies was probably even lower than the modest one reported by the study authors with an apparent progressively increasing dropout rate across each study phase. Conclusions: The reviewed findings argue for a reappraisal of the current recommended standard of care of depression. Read More-- Efficacy and Effectiveness of Antidepressants: Current Status of Research, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 2010: 79: No. 5, 267-279. What Is Empathic Therapy? Empathy recognizes, welcomes and treasures the individuality, personhood, identity, spirit or soul of the other human being in all its shared and unique aspects. Empathic therapies offer a caring, understanding and empowering attitude toward the individual's emotional struggles, aspirations and personal growth.  They promote the individual's inherent human rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  They respect the autonomy, personal responsibility and freedom of the person. They encourage the individual to grow in self-appreciation as well as in the ability to respect, love and empathize with others. A broad spectrum of therapeutic and educational approaches can draw upon and express empathy; but conventional psychiatric diagnosis, psychiatric medication, electroshock and involuntary treatment suppress the individuality and the empathic potential of both the provider and the recipient.  Empathy lies at the heart of the best therapeutic and educational approaches. Peter R. Breggin, MD July 8, 2010 Special Opportunity to Take Graduate Courses with Peter R. Breggin, MD Dr. Peter Breggin is teaching at SUNY Oswego in the graduate school Department of Counseling in the fall of 2010 and the spring of 2011. The 3-credit graduate courses are open to Master's Degree students and to students who are not matriculated at SUNY Oswego. Auditors will be considered but are required to pay tuition.   The fall 2010 course is titled Empathic Counseling.  It consists of 1 Friday and 4 Saturday classes.   Students who are not matriculated at SUNY Oswego can call the graduate office at SUNY (315-312-3152) and ask for help in registering for Dr. Breggin's CPS 595 course Empathic Counseling in the fall of 2010.   A second course on Critical Psychology will be taught in the spring 2011 on 1 Friday and 4 Saturdays.   Taken together the two courses can be used by students in Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS) in any of the degree programs to fulfill their specialization requirements, in this case in Empathic Counseling and Critical Psychology.  Non-matriculating students can use this as a professional development opportunity.  Non-matriculated students can apply to transfer these credits to their own graduate programs. Read more about Dr. Breggin's Fall 2010 and Spring 2011 Graduate Courses~ Warning! Most psychiatric drugs can cause withdrawal reactions, sometimes including life-threatening emotional and physical withdrawal problems. In short, it is not only dangerous to start taking psychiatric drugs, it can also be dangerous to stop them. Withdrawal from psychiatric drugs should be done carefully under experienced clinical supervision. Methods for safely withdrawing from psychiatric drugs are discussed in Dr. Peter Breggin's books, Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock and the Psychopharmaceutical Complex (New York: Springer Publishing Company, 2008) and Medication Madness: The Role of Psychiatric Drugs in Cases of Violence, Suicide and Crime (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2008). Empathic Therapy Center is not affiliated with the Center for the Study of Psychiatry, informally known as the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology Copyright 2010 Peter R. Breggin, MD Empathic Therapy c/o Peter R. Breggin, MD 101 East State St. #112 Ithaca, NY 14850 607 272-5328