The Staff in the hospital might be a sales rep for a drug company..

[undergroundpanther]

I was in the hospital recently as in last week..I was railroaded in, by a staff that didn't know my treatment plan. It was hell for a week. And I got alot to tell..This group I attended everyday while I was there patrticularly bugged me alot...Everyday I was given a sales pitch..


One day it was for fucking invega..We were being given a infomercial on the unit, by staff....There, much to my shocked revulsion, it seems things had changed in the 15 years since I was in the hospital the the last time..The hospital staff was actually promoting big pharma's new pills in the guise of "mental health education". And apparently this shit has been going on for a while.. Please pass me a barf bag..And I bet that bag will be advertising some happy pills on it too.

http://carlatpsychiatry.blogspot.com/2007/08/art-of-pre-release-cme-arketing.html

The staff member giving us the pitch was a licensed clinical social worker.. "teaching" this "class" on "mental health education". He was open about how he meets with the pharma reps from time to time,and he told us how they buy him a nice dinner and tell him about new drugs and he gets all their perks .
After he meets with these slime balls in suits,he comes into the ward and "teaches" the patients , some manic, depressed, suicidal, hearing voices, all are generally are suffering, and all are captive audiences required to "go to groups" and scheduled activities because that is the so called "therapy" part of being stuck in the hospital.And for"therapy" we hear about all the "wonderful,safe, and effective, almost effortless "new" drugs.
Everyday it was a new disorder and there was a drug we had to be told was there to fix it.
WTF??!!

As he sweet talked us up with promises of happiness that can only be had in a capsule a day of course ..I smelt a LOT of bullshit. And yes he called all the drugs by brand NAME, repeating it louder than he was the other words he was saying ,just like a trained seal,performing and appearing to believe in the sales pitches as TRUTH from pharma reps as if it is actually unbiased information. I sat there dumbfounded by all this.

After this vomitile sales pitch I witnessed..Suddenly several other patients announced in this "education group" they wanted to be put on that drug..what was it?? vega? Inveg,?? ASAP.

:mad:
In the book "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell -- who is an author well-read by the pharmaceutical industry -- the author talks of the tipping point as the "moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point" when an idea, fashion, or product takes off.

First, you have to identify the equivalent to "high prescribers" among patients. These people would fit Gladwell's profile of Mavens: their motivation is to educate and help.

....focus on the true customers among consumers -- the patients who are taking the drugs..
http://pharmamkting.blogspot.com/2006/08/precision-buzz-marketing.html

Fuck THE damn Marketers Arrgh! they are invading everything..

:nuke:

Disturbingly,I observed no questions arose from any of the patients in there with me .No questions about potential drug interactions, toxicity, nasty side effects, how it works, what is it made of, how it was tested, or anything like that. Nor was it brought up by our"teacher"/staff/sales rep. They wanted to TRY it and they didn't care if it would be useful to them or not or interact with any health problem or other drugs they may be on... It bothered me how the other patients were so easily convinced in order to get better it means one has to be eager to ingest all the pills the"professionals" recommend at the appointed times .. FOREVER .. And that staff pitched it all to us like that fucking pill was THE solution to every emotional problem..

It was a particularly sickening kind of predatory marketing method. And it showed me to never trust anything that is called "mental health education" as ANYTHING but a lot of Marketing Propaganda..

It all just got me so inwardly sad, pissed off and disgusted..I wondered how many more psych hospital staff out there are now being wined and dined into being degreed drug pushers for the pharmaceutical companies? So now it is the psych staff working in the units,being the smarmy salesmen. And as if NAMI'S cozy drug rep relations wasn't bad enough for psych survivors to navigate bullshit from useful information.. For NAMI to pose as "consumer advocates"..Yeah advocates my ass....Ugh!......It's all so insidiously disgusting.

Is that all psych hospitalization is good for now?.. A place to be marketing,to a captive audience?? Pretending as if it was therapeutic for us to be manipulated into taking even MORE drugs in psych wards than you already take?? Fucking EXPENSIVE drugs? Is this what medicaid money is paying for? Fuck this shit.

How disgusting can it be,??? Find out..
http://nurse-ratcheds.blogspot.com/2008/01/invega-popcorn-review.html
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=33951
http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2007/05/treating_children_p.html

I am serious as a heart attack..Some of these "wonderful drugs" are fucking dangerous.Take them if it helps you, but dammit BE AWARE of what ALL the RISKS are!!! Do NOT just TRUST the "professionals" or "helpful staff" as if they have your interest at heart because they may have been targeted and already bought into the "buzz".
http://ww1.prweb.com/releases/2007/3/prweb508352.htm
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2007/05/18/autism_misdiagnosis/
.......

I haven't written about my fun day I had with an Invega drug rep sales guy. I was in the psychiatrist's waiting room, and there he was, all shiny in his suit, his badge on and his big ass suitcase full of Pharma freebies. I walk in and stop in my tracks. Oh, a Pharma rep, right here in person I look into the counter area and see he has already handed over enormous latte'style coffee mugs that are bright orange with INVEGA on it. Loaded like candy inside were lovely Invega samples. Damn it looked good, like a party favor, or a teacher's gift resembling one's I've received, only those were filled with Hershey kisses.Not Invega, the dollar store version of Risperdal.
http://bipolarsoupkitchen-stephany.blogspot.com/2007/11/son-of-risperdal-invega-dollar-store.html


And for a tidbit of irony..
Janssen’s marketing team apparently missed the fact that the word in the English language that sounds most like “Invega” is “inveigle,” meaning “to entice, lure, or ensnare by flattery or artful talk or inducements”
http://www.thecarlatreport.com/index.asp?page=wp3152007185348

:evilgrin:
"Invega" marketing team = FAIL!!

[qb]

1. This is disturbing. It seems a lot of health care professionals have been brainwashed.

I am so tired of fighting to stay on a cheap med that works when the doctors keep pushing the latest and greatest that Big Pharma has to offer. I finally switched to a physician's assistant at a different clinic recommended by a friend... much better.

[undergroundpanther]

3. I take meds

but I take old ones.Trazadone,Adderall Klonopin.I ain't taking the new shit.My doc knows that..Tried effexor,after a month or so I took myself off of it because I was miserable,sweating buckets all day and night unable to control my body temperature.Then I read the drug info insert because I got one in an actual manufacturer's bottle bottle they gave me,in a box,in that data sheet,unlike the one the pharmacy prints up,in the actual drug company insert I found out effexor can cause tendon blowouts and it aggravates bone spurs.Well FUCK that shit. I got fucked up tendons and bone spurs scraping my esophagus every time I get a sore throat. Best I stay away from effexor. Interestingly my knee I dislocated in december STILL wasen't better,and I think the effexor slowed the healing of my tendons .On effexor they were so stiff and resistant to motion they would give out and my knee would jerk,I think it was because of that drug,now since I am off of it, my knee seems to be on the mend faster and I have gained back alot of flexibility and some strength back that on effexor I never had gotten back .A big difference in a few weeks. And another new and foul drug for me was abilify it gave me lava shits from hell and left me with hemorrhoids, never had intestinal issues until I took that shit..My main thing is be CAREFUL and KNOW all the effects before you take any drug a shrink or doctor gives you. Ultimately if it's side effects have a chance of hurting you at least you will know.

[ellisonz]

2. Fuckin' Big Pharma

[davidthegnome]

4. It's depressing

And scary. I've seen a large number of mental health professionals throughout my life. The diagnosis has never been steady. Even my psychiatrist and my social worker disagreed on what my diagnosis should be. After a 20 minute conversation - my psychiatrist tried to prescribe risperdal. Fortunately I am old enough now to realize the dangers of it, and know myself well enough to realize that I didn't need it.

If someone were to, as an independent study, visit ten different psychiatrists, claiming the exact same symptoms to each - I firmly believe that each would attempt to give a different diagnosis and prescribe a different drug. Actually I think this has been done a few times.

In my opinion, an enlightened psychiatrist is extremely rare. I don't say this to imply that they are bad people in general, but to suggest that the foundations of the treatment methods are... inaccurate and not nearly as effective as they could be. In many cases, it is like we have given the power of life and death - of sanity and insanity - to people who really don't know what they're doing. And in the worst cases (there are good ones, bad ones, and the terrible) we have given this power to egotistical, idle children.

That said... I can't help but wonder... does any institution, group, or individual have it right? Where can you find a better method of treatment? With psychiatry being as faulted as it is - it is still, for most of us, the only treatment available.

[undergroundpanther]

5. Look into radical psych.

Here are some links.
None of these sites are fucking $cientologists.

http://www.successfulschizophrenia.org/
http://www.mindfreedom.org/
http://psychsurvivor.wordpress.com/
http://www.radpsynet.org
http://writhesafely.wordpress.com/
http://www.onourownmd.org/
http://www.wildestcolts.com/