I posted a while back about Janssen doing some "research" on why people with schizophrenia stop taking their antipsychotic medications. They partnered with the National Association of Social Workers to conduct a survey as to which patients were unlikely to comply with taking their medications. A group of social workers and academics was unimpressed with the science behind said survey and that the NASW was willing to accept a bribe, er, donation from Janssen in order to push this survey on its membership
In a related note, at the American Psychiatric Association convention, a press release featuring Dr. John Kane (a Janssen consultant with a monetary investment in Janssen) said that the main reason physicians cite for patients not complying with their medication is "poor insight into illness". I don't know if poor efficacy or side effect burden was even mentioned by this survey. These results came from a survey designed by (who else?) Janssen.
What am I getting at? Well, we've got two related surveys, one given to social workers, the other to physicians. Both of them emphasize that patients tend to not comply with their schizophrenia medications. Well, phew, Janssen, whose patent on oral Risperdal is about to expire, has the patent for an injectable form of Risperdal (Risperdal Consta), which won't expire for a while. So, they send out these surveys under the guise of research, but the point is far from research -- we already know people don't generally enjoy taking antipsychotics.
The point is marketing. People don't comply with their medications, so we have to give it to them in injectable, long-acting format so that their compliance with treatment will be acceptable.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
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4 comments:
ahh they just want to compete w/ Intramuscular Olanzapine. The problem with intramuscular anti psychotics? the pdocs and nurses use those quite a lot in psych wards--they need to know if the patient has a paradoxical effect first, or that long lasting shot is gonna cause more problems than Cogentin can handle.
Risperdal made my daughter's eyes roll straight up in her head and get stuck. Imagine if she had an injection of it.
Zyprexa did the same thing to her-and also caused extreme agitation, especially at higher doses.
I'm sure there will be an under-skin insert of anti psychotics one day.
One other side note: poor insight to illness--how about dumbed down and drugged up losing ability to think while on those meds? Pharma bucks at the expense of innocent minds.
Zyprexa Zydis was also a bit hit with the nursing staff at a couple of hospitals my kid was in. Instant gratification for the staff--keep em all QUIET.
Same thing goes for out in society right? silence them.[us].
I'm supposed they haven't jumped on the 'anosognosia' bandwagon - i.e. asserting that the 'lack of insight' that is allegedly the cause of many people's reluctance to take their meds isn't primarily a psychological phenomenon, but is instead caused by a neurological abnormality. All the more reason to use long-lasting injectables... still under patent.
Um, why did they ask doctors and social workers why patients don't take anti-psychotics? Why not ask the patients? I think I'll survery psychiatric patients and ask them why psychiatrists forget to obtain informed consent, that's the best way to answer that question, right?
It couldn't be the side effects, could it? Nah....
~Lisa
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