Are you over 65 & taking statin meds? Know anyone who is? It may not be worth it.

If you’re a prescriber, consider this research. If you’re a patient, or know someone who is, consider this for your, or their well-being.

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Statins Have No Primary CVD Prevention Benefit To Older Patients

Takeaway
Statins offer no benefit for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in adult patients aged ≥65 y.

Why this matters
“[S]tatins may be producing untoward effects in the function or health of older adults that could offset any possible cardiovascular benefit,” say the study authors.

Study design
Researchers conducted post hoc secondary data analyses of patient data from a randomized, open-label clinical trial (N=2867; age, ≥65 y; 49.4% women; all without evidence of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease); patients were assigned to either a treatment group receiving pravastatin sodium 40 mg/d or a usual care (UC) group.
Funding: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; AstraZeneca; Bristol-Myers Squibb; Pfizer; National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences; The Stroke Foundation.

Key results
Hazard ratios for all-cause mortality in the treatment group vs the UC group were

Psychiatric Madmen? New manual makes everyone mentally sick.

Perhaps an alternate title for this would be “We’re in it for the money.”

See also another related entry entitled “Mental Health Profession has Mental Health problems.”
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“We’re all mad here”

Medication misuse is out of control in the US and more psychiatric labelling in DSM-5 will not help.

by Allen Frances | Tuesday, 21 May 2013

That’s the message of the new edition of the bible for American psychiatrists, DSM-5. Diagnostic inflation is about to become hyperinflation.

“We are all mad here” explains the Cat to Alice when she wonders about the strangeness of Wonderland. Well, life is starting to follow art. If people make the mistake of following DSM-5, the new diagnostic manual in psychiatry that was published on Saturday, pretty soon all of us may be labelled mad.

When I worked on the taskforce for DSM-4, we were very concerned about taming diagnostic inflation – but we only partly succeeded. Then four years ago, I became aware of the excessive enthusiasm around all the new diagnoses being proposed for DSM-5, including many that were untested. I hate to rain on anyone’s parade, but I knew this would be disastrous for the millions of people who were likely to be mislabelled, stigmatised and given excessive treatment.

In the US, the “sick” are distinguished from the “well” by the diagnostic and statistical manuals developed by the American Psychiatric Association.

The problem is that definitions of mental disorders are already written too loosely and are applied much too carelessly by clinicians, especially by the GPs who do most of the prescribing of psychiatric drugs.

And things are about to get much worse. Under DSM-5 diagnostic inflation looks set to become hyperinflation and will lead to an even greater glut of unnecessary medication. I would qualify for a bunch of the new labels myself – and you might too.

The grief I felt when my wife died would now be called “major depressive disorder”; forgetfulness in older age “mild neurocognitive disorder”; my gluttony now “binge eating disorder”; and my hyperactivity “attention deficit disorder”. As for my twin grandsons’ temper tantrums, this could be misunderstood as “disruptive mood dysregulation disorder”. And if you have cancer and your doctor thinks you are too worried about it, there’s “somatic symptom disorder.” It goes on, but you get the idea.

About half of Americans already qualify for a mental disorder at some point in their lives and the rates keep skyrocketing, especially among kids. In the past 20 years, the prevalence of autism has increased, childhood bipolar has multiplied 40-fold and attention deficit disorder has tripled.

One consolation: the kids are not suddenly getting much sicker – human nature is pretty stable. But the way we label symptoms follows fickle fashions, changing quickly and arbitrarily. And freely giving out inaccurate diagnoses can

Sex, Drugs, and Rock-n-Roll

Periodically, friends and family come to me seeking understanding about various medical and health related issues, which often includes information about procedures and medications.

And on occasion, I continue to be asked to identify certain medications.

Particularly problematic are the numerous herbs and Over The Counter (OTC) non-prescription remedies that neither treat nor cure, yet proliferate and line the pockets of those unscrupulous enough to market and sell them to the unsuspectingly ignorant.

On one such occasion, I was asked by a friend to identify several foreign concoctions of apparent Asian origin, which I succeed in identifying, though I suspect I merely added levity to our communication. Fortunately, the request wasn’t anything of any seriously substantial nature.

It’s becoming more difficult to identify many items, though I count myself fortunate to have access to the numerous resources I do.

Here’s the text of my response. Perhaps you’ll find it enlightening.

When the treatment is worse than the disease

“Simponi can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious and sometimes fatal events can occur – such as infections, cancer in children and adults, heart failure, nervous system disorders, liver or blood problems and allergic reactions. Before starting Simponi, your doctor should test you for TB and assess your risk of infections, including fungal infections, and hepatitis B.”

– from a teevee commercial/advertisement for a once-a-month, self-injectable “drug/medicine” branded “Simponi” purported to treat rheumatoid arthritis

“SIMPONI^™ can lower your ability to fight infections. There are reports of serious infections caused by bacteria, fungi, or viruses that have spread throughout the body, including tuberculosis (TB) and histoplasmosis. Some of these infections have been fatal. Your doctor will test you for TB before starting SIMPONI^™ and will monitor you for signs of TB during treatment. Tell your doctor if you have been in close contact with people with TB. Tell your doctor if you have been in a region (such as the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys and the Southwest) where certain fungal infections like histoplasmosis or coccidioidomycosis are common. Unusual cancers have been reported in children and teenage patients taking TNF-blocker medicines. For children and adults taking TNF blockers, including SIMPONI^™, the chances for getting lymphoma or other cancers may increase. You should tell your doctor if you have had or develop lymphoma or other cancers.”

– from the http://www.simponi.com/ website

The word “medication” can be simply defined as “a compound or preparation used for the treatment or prevention of disease,” while the word “cure” can be simply defined as to “relieve (a person or animal) of the symptoms of a disease or condition.”

Should a “cure” cause disease?

What the hell was the FDA thinking when they approved this “medicine”?

What sense does it make to create a “medicine” for which the company knows causes cancer? Is that not a class action lawsuit waiting to happen? Would the American Cancer Association approve this medication?

Would YOU recommend this “medicine” to your family and friends?

Would YOU take this “medicine”?

Should this “medicine” be banned?