Washout ?

(Re-viewing psychotropic drugs)

Washout

4. (informal)

1. a total failure or disaster

2. an incompetent person

(http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/wash-out)

3. dose tapering of medication to more safely discontinue

its use or to (ostensibly) eliminate its effects

before commencing a different treatment regime

(source: industry idiom¹)

But perhaps we should expand the meaning of “washout” as we consider:

▪  the effects of profit motive on integrity and compassion;
▪  the psychopathology² of most profit-driven corporations;
▪  the psychopathology of many HyPEs;³
▪  the massive, addictive profits in PR and propaganda;⁴
▪  the practice of off-label drug marketing;⁵
▪  too many slap-on-the-wrist fines (relative to profits); “do NOT go to jail” standards;
▪  the myopia of permitting industry-funded efficacy studies and of FDA revolving doors;
▪  the pervasive “cancer” of publication bias and research misconduct;⁶
▪  the “accountable to shareholders” con;⁷
▪  the “rapid increase in the use of polypharmacy in psychiatry”;⁸
▪  the number of (ignored) witnesses coming forward,⁹ as in


» Gwen Olsen, former Rx Drug Rep.
at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIm8fHxqUAM (Time: 7:18)
see also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4bYng7X7Kk (Time: 5:51)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIASdSFV8fI (Time: 8:52)



» Documentary: Making a Killing: The Untold Story of Psychotropic Drugging at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tse5TtcNZ8U (Time: 1.34.42)



» Dr. John Abramson (UCTV) at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o8CIDuxCC0 (Time: 29:40);
author of Overdosed America

» Podcast: Robert Whitaker on Psychiatric Drugs at http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/features/2014/06/08/robert-whitaker-on-psychiatric-drugs/ (Time: 29.50); and author of Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America

» Website: http://www.drugawareness.org/ 

Of course, some(?) percentage of patients may benefit (or believe they benefit) from chemical intervention, but the broad picture established by independent studies is that other non-prescription treatments achieve results (without the severe or dangerous side-effects) that psychotropic drugs do not and cannot achieve by the very nature of how they work and what they, in reality, do.

So, if we consider all the above (and more), perhaps we should add to the washout definitions:

Washout

5. (observed)

1. loss of life, hopes, and dreams of millions of mis-medicated

2. impunity for many drug companies for false and misleading

speech; for frauds and depraved indifference

3. mis-education (and/or apathy) of the prescribed and their

prescribers because of PR / propaganda, (& Rx perks)

4. loss of life, hopes, and dreams of many family, friends, and

victims¹⁰ of the mis-medicated

Interesting, is it not, how washout and whitewash seem twin strategies for this profit-driven Hydra?

So here are three questions:

•  How long this culture of denial?
•  How long, with the knowledge and unbiased studies that are out there, before the first question of every marriage & family therapist is: “What are the medications in this family?”¹¹ (Please read the footnote.)
•  How long before we utterly refuse to participate any more in WASHOUT and WHITEWASH?

Here are a couple of beginning answers:

•  Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs: A Harm Reduction Approach to Medication Withdrawal | Will Hall at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4bdG601k4k (Time 39:15)

•  Website: http://beyondmeds.com/

-------------/
1. Derived from various online readings & videos, plus “Washout” article at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3215520/
2. http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2014/05/a-plague-of-psychopaths.html ; The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power by Joel Bakan, et al. at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6zQO7JytzQ (Time: 2.25.18)
3. (Highly Paid Employees); http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2014/10/public-enemy-1.html ; http://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.ca/2014/12/without-conscience.html
4. University of California TV:
•  Overview of Pharma Industry Marketing Practices (1) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHHC5AYAUVI (Time: 23:47)
•  Industry Sponsored Research and Marketing (Pt. 2) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoDdQ6foEtc (Time 27:46)
•  Industry Sponsored Education and Marketing (Pt. 3) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrcdKB6_I4w (Time: 27:40)
•  Direct-to-Consumer Pharma Marketing (Pt. 4) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrSoTvhIPzc (Time: 28:56)
•  Effects of Marketing on Prescribing: Does It Matter? (Pt.5) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AjwPZuivBY (Time: 28:49)
5. Off-Label Marketing & Free Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_3wrbuwum0
6. Ben Goldacre: What doctors don't know about the drugs they prescribe ~ TED talk (Time 13:29) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKmxL8VYy0M
7. The Great Con: http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2012/03/great-con.html
8. “’Polypharmacy’ refers to the concurrent use of multiple medications in a single patient.” Quoted from a DovePress abstract titled, “Polypharmacy or medication washout: an old tool revisited” at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3215520/
9. Numerous additional witnesses can be found by searching “Big Pharma,” “SSRI,” “Prescription Suicide,” etc. Here are a few extras:
•  Risky Business: Reporting on Research in the Media (UCTV) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it5yyn_lIKg (Time 57:26)
•  The Truth About the Drug Companies - Dr. Marcia Angell at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDbQNBla6aU (Time 1:17:36)
•  Manipulation of Data: http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/18775/do-washout-periods-in-drug-studies-lead-to-underestimates-of-side-effects
10. See http://www.drugawareness.org/ for the expanding list of tragic victims of the mis-medicated.
11. Please understand: This is not to say that all family problems arise from medication, but with the known problems, the listed (and expanding) side-effects, and massive over-prescribing, why do we not comprehend that medicines play a key role in understanding behaviors and solutions?