Frightening report on the ABC about dangers of anti-psychotic drug Seroquel

Concerns grow over top-selling drug's side effects. 7.30.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 27/11/2013
Reporter: Louise Milligan
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2013/s3900419.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-27/growing-concerns-over-side-effects-of-seroquel/5120554

"....doctors are warning the drug is being massively overprescribed and the potentially dangerous side-effects are being ignored."

This is a shocking and important report. Nice work Louise. 

The drug Quetiapine (brand name Seroquel) stands out among other anti-psychotic drugs for two reasons: the astronomical increase in the rate of prescription of this drug in the last ten years in Australia far outstrips the rates of prescription of other anti-psychotic drugs, and the measured rate of cases of serious harm to patients from side-effects of the drug also far outstrip those of other anti-psychotic drugs. As if that is crazy enough, consider the fact that that this drug is also prescribed for depression even though it comes with an increased risk of suicide compared to other anti-psychotic drugs. Something must be seriously wrong with medicine in Australia when increased potential for harm sit alongside spectacular prescriber popularity. 

Grave concerns about side effects are by no means the only reason why this drug has been hitting the headlines in the last few years. Readers of this blog might recall that the celebrity psychiatrist Prof. Patrick McGorry tried to trial this drug on patients thought to be at risk of developing psychosis in 2011 in a trial that was known as the NEURAPRO-Q study, but that study was closed down following objections from McGorry’s international peers. The drug has also been the subject of a deluge of litigation in the United States, which should surprise no one. So why does this drug continue to elicit such huge popularity with Australian doctors, and is even sought after by some as a drug of abuse? I think there’s no over-estimating the power of marketing and there’s no under-estimating the common sense of my fellow Australians. 

Nice work, Tony.

My amazement has grown over the way that journalists at the ABC's current affairs TV program Lateline have firmly challenged the inappropriate use of anti-psychotic drugs by Australian doctors and psychiatrists. In fact a very good argument could be made that there is no appropriate application of these dangerous and harmful drugs, but I think it would be too much to expect that this argument should be found on Australian TV.

In 2011 Tony Jones interviewed the powerful Irish-Australian psychiatrist Professor Patrick McGorry. At the time I thought this interview was informed but too soft, and the findings of research that has been done since this interview has shown that much of what McGorry claimed about the effectiveness and evidence-base of the interventions he has been advocating for many years was wrong. In 2012 Tony Jones appeared to be quite personally inflamed when he reported about elderly dementia patients having their lives shortened in Australian nursing homes because of the widespread over-prescription of anti-psychotic drugs.

The last couple of editions of Lateline have examined the issue of a 600 per cent increase in the use of the anti-psychotic drug Seroquel in just five years by Australia's Department of Defence, presumably for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in soldiers. Allegations have been made that this drug is being used instead of proper and expensive psychological interventions, is being prescribed in dangerous high doses and is being prescribed inappropriately to treat insomnia symptoms of PTSD. Last night Tony Jones was steadfast in asking questions, recounting evidence and seeking answers in an interview with a clearly very irritated senior person in the Australian Defense Force, our Commander Joint Health and the ADF Surgeon General. The interview was a pleasure to watch. I am sure that there are heaps of journalists who would not have had the confidence to question the practices and administration of a qualified doctor and senior bureaucrat on an issue about the rights or wrongs of medical/psychiatric clinical practice. I am sure that many journalists would simply defer to authority, or be too intimidated to be seen questioning that great sacred cow of Australian popular culture; the "mental health" industry. Not Tony Jones. A good journalist should be hot on the inside, cool on the outside, filled to the brim with all the relevant facts, and able to recognize the truth beyond personal agendas. I think Mr Jones approaches that ideal. Nice work Tony.

ABC News stuffs up again

If anyone needed evidence that the ABC's news is inept and biased against Rudd, their reporting of today's big event has delivered confirmation. ABC News reported by Twitter this morning that it was confirmed that Rudd got 29 votes in today's ALP leadership vote - WRONG! It was later confirmed that Rudd's share was 31 votes, and the ABC were forced to issue an embarrasing apology, following a few snide comments from others on Twitter.

P.S. Funny how on March 5th the ABC's Media Watch sarcastically criticised the Twitter misreporting of the leadership vote count by an individual press journalist with a Twitter account, but there was no similar reprimand to the ABC over their even worse misreporting of the wrong figure as confirmed. How biased is Media Watch?

Some quotes about Australian politics from this week

OK, so, one year on almost from the killing Kevin episode Julia Gillard’s net satisfaction rating is precisely where his was before he was knifed.

- Lenore Taylor, from the Sydney Morning Herald speaking on Insiders TV show broadcast on ABC1 June 5th 2011



I don’t accept that my country is a pissant country.

- Professor Ross Garnaut speaking at the launch of the updated Garnaut Review of climate change at the National Press Club, May 31st 2011.



Order, order, ORDER!, order, order......

- Harry Jenkins, Speaker of the House of Representatives, who came close to resigning this week following a failure to win a vote to have a backbencher suspended for alleged rowdy behaviour

Rudd at the Club

Today an edited version of an address to the National Press Club by Kevin Rudd was broadcast. His speech was delivered in a brisk pace and it was followed by an attentive question session. Kevin Rudd quoted many impressive-sounding statistics. He counted things out on his fingers, for added visual impact. He pointed at something that wasn't there. He employed some favourite phrases, such as "in due season". In a mood that looked like defiance Rudd refused to apologise for something, as is his habit. He used a word that was possibly his own invention, and doesn't pass my spellchecker unnoticed ("thugged"). Rudd interrogated himself and gave some sensible-sounding answers to his own probing questions. He adjusted his glasses, even though they had looked perfectly straight. He made his case energetically, confidently and convincingly, and all is right in the world.

The Hon Kevin Rudd MP
Minister For Foreign Affairs
National Press Club of Australia
June 1, 2011
"Australia's United Nations Security Council bid: Why it matters"
http://www.npc.org.au/speakerarchive/kevin-rudd-010611.html