By now, everyone who has been paying attention should know that a journal article which lists "editorial support" is an article that was ghostwritten. Yet the average reader of these articles is apparently uninformed enough to not care. Why else would so many articles get published which feature "editorial support provided by [insert name of ghostwriter here]." One my my favorite journals, under the "so bad, it's good" category, is the Primary Care Companion to the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Good articles certainly make their way into the journal, perhaps by accident, but the journal can always be counted on to provide a steady supply of utter garbage.
Here's the acknowledgements section from one recent piece in the journal: "Editorial support was provided by George Rogan, MSc, Phase Five Communications Inc, New York, New York. Mr. Rogan reports no other financial affiliations relevant to the subject of this article." And in case you're wondering, "Funding for editorial support was provided by Bristol-Myers Squibb." If you've somehow guessed that this is an advertorial for Abilify, you win. Other ghostwritten pieces of fluff paid for by BMS include an article discussing the safety profile of Abilify in depression. It states that "In conclusion, this post hoc analysis extends previous findings demonstrating that aripiprazole is safe and generally well tolerated as an augmentation strategy to standard ADT in patients with MDD with a history of an inadequate response to antidepressant medication." But Abilify caused akathisia in a quarter of patients - I think that's a problem.
But wait... there's more. An article based on data from two trials, which showed (allegedly) that Seroquel improves anxiety in patients with bipolar disorder. This piece also acknowledges that it was ghostwritten. And we know that AstraZeneca, manufacturer of Seroquel, has cooked the books on Seroquel in the past. Feel free to look through the journal every month and have a giggle at some of the ridiculous pieces that make their way into print.
CME
You can get your continuing medical education (CME) from the Primary Care Companion as well. One particularly awesome piece of medical wisdom
Back to the CME.. Thase starts off by stating that only a third of patients achieve remission of depressive symptoms during treatment. Given that Abilify is being marketed for treatment-resistant depression, this is a perfect way to start off this
In particular, "Relying on the global statement “I’m definitely better” from the patient overlooks persistent, minor, or residual symptoms. Dr Thase recommended using a standardized symptom assessment measure and keeping track of the patient’s levels of symptom burden." So even if the patient says he or she is much better, don't believe it. Have the patient fill out rating scales and if any symptoms at any level are present, keep treating. In Thase's words, "If the current treatment is well tolerated and the individual has made significant symptom improvement but is still experiencing residual symptoms, then it may be necessary to adjust the treatment dose, add another medication, or combine pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy." Note that adding psychotherapy comes after adding another medication.
Then a series of other objective, expert psychiatrists chime in. Dr. Gaynes offers his wisdom, which includes "Dr Gaynes concluded that incomplete remission requires aggressive identification and management." Don't be afraid - be aggressive. The unspoken message: Hey, using an antipsychotic like Abilify for depression may seem freakin' crazy. But don't worry, you need to be aggressive. Dr. Trivedi then comments about using rating scales to measure side effects. I don't have much to say about his section, but things get worse momentarily...
Dr. Papakostas then checks in. "A meta-analysis of randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled studies found that augmentation of various antidepressants with the atypical antipsychotic agents olanzapine, risperidone, and quetiapine was more efficacious than adjunctive placebo therapy. In addition, Dr Papakostas noted that the atypical antipsychotic aripiprazole was recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use as an adjunctive therapy to antidepressants in MDD. Augmenting with atypical antipsychotics has so far been the best studied strategy for managing treatment-resistant depression, said Dr Papakostas." Dr. P was the coauthor of a meta-analysis that provided "considerable evidence" regarding the wonders of antipsychotic therapy for depression. The only problem was that the analysis actually did not find convincing evidence that the drugs were particularly effective, which I discussed in December 2009.
Next comes Dr. Shelton. Time to be aggressive, again: "Thus, said Dr Shelton, the long-term management of depression should be viewed in the context of acute treatment and the need for early aggressive management to get the patient as well as possible." Be aggressive by adding Abilify to the antidepressant regimen. If not, your patient won't achieve full remission and will suffer needlessly... "Dr Shelton advised clinicians to be aggressive in treatment and stay active over time, asking themselves if everything has
honestly been done to help the patient." Psychotherapy is given a brief mention in this section, but let's face it -- most physicians think of "be aggressive" as upping the dosage and/or adding medications - not as "let's be aggressive by adding psychotherapy."
Then there's the exam at the end. Write up your answers, mail them in, and get your medical education credit. Here's one of the questions...
3. Scores on both patient- and clinician-rated scales found that Ms B is still experiencing residual depressive symptoms. You optimize her current SSRI dose, which produces some improvement. She has not reported any problems with side effects. What course of action to improve her outcome has the most comprehensive efficacy data?
a. Increase the dose of her current SSRI again
b. Augment her current SSRI with another SSRI
c. Switch her to a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor
d. Augment her current SSRI with an atypical antipsychotic
If you guessed that D is the correct answer, you're one step closer to CME credit. And one step closer to writing a prescription for Abilify despite the fact that it is as likely to induce akathisia as to induce remission of depressive symptoms. Or that its advantage over placebo is small on several measures and nonexistent on a patient-rated measure of depression. But D is still the "correct" answer.
The offending educational piece is cited below:
Thase, M., Gaynes, B., Papakostas, G., Shelton, R., & Trivedi, M. (2009). Tackling Partial Response to Depression Treatment The Primary Care Companion to The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 11 (4), 155-162 DOI: 10.4088/PCC.8133ah3c
Thanks for the ongoing updates! I have to say, I love reading your blog. Not that it's wonderful what "great research" there is out there and the practices which psychiatrists are regularly supporting with using antipsychotics to "treat" depression - but it it certainly makes me laugh and feel terrified at the same time. Two emotions I never thought could co-exist.
ReplyDeleteGreat work and you certainly deserve to be nominated for some awards
Our profession is so corrupted by dishonest, sociopathic psychiatrists that it is truly only a matter of time before the entire discipline implodes. I was having dinner with a psychiatrist colleague the other night and after a few too many rounds of booze, he blurted out the following: "Look, all we do is toss pills at people. And it really doesn't matter what pill we start with. We just keep on going and after a couple of months of this, our patient "responds" and we call it a cure. We finally found the right pill or cocktail for the patient and corrected the chemical imbalance! But if we were honest with ourselves, we would admit that its all bullshit. The patient remitted DESPITE our efforts!" And I had to agree with him.
ReplyDeleteThis is terrible, but I don't think that I'm just being nationalistic when I say that the situation isn't as bad as this in British psychiatry, or so far as I understand, elsewhere either... American psychiatry at the moment seems to have a bigger "drug problem" than elsewhere.
ReplyDelete3. Scores on both patient- and clinician-rated scales found that Ms B is still experiencing residual depressive symptoms. You optimize her current SSRI dose, which produces some improvement. She has not reported any problems with side effects. What course of action to improve her outcome has the most comprehensive efficacy data?
ReplyDeleteIsn't it psychotherapy every time?
Most of their training is in physiology, chemistry, sciences and general medicine. Therefore, they usually prescribe drugs and do little, if any, counseling or psychotherapy.
ReplyDeleteGreat article. The influence of pharmaceutical companies on the practice of psychiatry is a huge problem.
ReplyDeleteThen again, when given the choice, "We can try months of behavioral activation and cognitive therapy, which may not be covered by your insurance, or you can take this magic pill to treat your symptoms" most people are, unfortunately, going to go right for the quickfix pill.