It’s hard to find blogs that are well written and interesting.  And it’s easy to find blogs that try to throw dirt at the establishment.

But blogs that are well written, based off solid sources, and actually finding things that drug companies would rather us not know?  They’re a rare species.

The 15 blogs that follow win our Investigative Blog in Healthcare Award – the Health Muckraker Award – for their excellence in uncovering issues in HealthCare.

1) Neuroskeptic

Neuroskeptic looks at important issues in neurological medicine and analyzes them thoroughly and skeptically.  This blog’s level-headedness combined with its sharp analyses and points make it a winner for investigative blogging, and place it at number one on this list.

Make sure to check out his fascinating article on Neurogenesis and Antidepressants.

2) Before You Take That Pill

Doug Bremmer is a doctor taking a stand against the market power of big pharma.  His blog analyzes medical fiascoes and controversies with wit and depth.  He is an authority in his field and it shows; you can clearly tell that he knows what he’s talking about.

Make sure to see his recent article on ghost-writing in medical research.

3) Furious Seasons

Philip Dawdy has dug up tons of dirt that makers of psychological drugs don’t want you to know and have simply tried to repress.  From analyzing abuse of Seroquel to discussing the downsides of antidepressants, he’s helped patients understand much better the risks of the meds they’re taking.

His work is helping expose things that we have a right to know.

Make sure to see his famous compilation of the Zyprexa documents.

4) Scientific Misconduct Blog

Another doctor blogging about the darker side of medicine.  This blog is marked by a higher intellectual tone and careful analysis/arguments.  Dr. Blumsohn makes sure to look at issues that are important to doctor behavior and catches issues that people not so involved with the field might miss.

Importantly, he doesn’t attack harder than he has to, and he’s willing to post in defense of the good stuff, like vaccines.

Make sure to see his post on the anti-vaccine meme.

5) Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry: A Closer Look

Sharp, sharp posts attacking the many problems in psychological medications.  Powerful criticism with occasional big picture posts.  Some important issues raised by the blog include antidepressant efficacy and excessive marketing.

Make sure to see the posts on Abilify.

6) Hooked: Ethics, Medicine, and Pharma

Dr. Brody focuses on pharmaceutical issues and develop.  He is very analytical and likes looking at issues in depth and bouncing ideas off his readers.  While incisive and sharp, his analysis tends to be slower and less “headline”-y than some of the others.  Which doesn’t make them less useful; their impact just takes a little longer.

Make sure to see his analyses of antidepressants.

7) The Carlat Psychiatry Blog

Dr. Carlat’s blog has won some impressive awards – and for good reason. His articles are excellently written. They’re in depth, sarcastic at times, and digging up stories for the general public to see what’s going on.

Check out the blog. Almost any post from it is worth a read.

8) Alison Bass

This blog isn’t popular enough. It’s well written, comprehensive, and makes an impact with strong arguments and discussions. Allison covers the crucial problems facing medicine today like overprescribing and lack of safety information for many popular drugs.

Make see to see her article on conflicts of interest in statin research.

9) Chemical Imbalance.org

Chemical imbalance is another blog focused on the controversies around psychiatric medications.  They are specifically aimed at analyzing the chemical imbalance theory of depression and mental illness as well as a general goal of looking at the problems of psychology.

They take pride in presenting balanced posts.

Make sure to see their analyses of problems with clinical publishing.

10) Medical Consumerism

An excellent blog produced by multiple authors from the University of Minnesota.  Very high quality writing that overviews other sources and a wide variety of interesting topics important to health care and medicine.  It isn’t dedicated to exposes but manages to raise important and thought provoking questions.

Because it’s mostly analysis of other sources, we’ll skip the recommended post.  Just check the blog out!

11) Pharma Marketing

John Mack blogs about the marketing tactics of pharmaceutical companies and provides analysis of their ethics.  Key issues he focuses on include exploitation of consumers and selling benefits while downplaying costs.  He’s good enough at what he does to be quoted by the New York Times.

Make sure to see his article on whether disclosure is enough in medical publishing.

12) Eye on FDA

Mark Senak writes about many different issues in health care and has a healthy skepticism and quick wit. As the name implies, he’s mainly focused on evaluating FDA policy and their ethical and business implications. Important topics he covers include monitoring safety and the darker side of the decisions that the FDA makes.

Make sure to read his post on the transparency of the FDA blog.

13) The Health Media Watch

Christine is a teacher of ethics at NYU, and she combines her deep understanding of ethics with analysis of health news and policy. Hard hitting posts include calling out a lack of disclosure in funding of clinical studies and sloppy reporting on Parkinson’s disease.

Make sure to see her hilarious spoof post on drug advertising

14) Health Care Renewal

The many authors off this blog are dedicated to “addressing threats to health care’s core values.” They have an academic slant and take on very important issues like corruption, transparency, and un-reported dangers. They’ve been around for a while, and have done some great work.

Make sure to check out their recent coverage of the Pfizer $2.3 billion fine.

15) Mental Dimensions

I love this site.  It has some great articles and some wonderful analyses.  One of the bigger problems with it, is that it doesn’t post enough.  But when it does, it’s worth it.

Make sure to see it’s article on addiction and SSRIs.

If you found this article useful, I’m happy.  Thanks for reading!

Do Vaccines Cause Autism?

There’s nothing more scary for parents than the thought that they might hurt their children. The controversy about vaccines and autism is frightening, but seems to have little scientific backing.

It started in 1998. The Lancet reported on 12 children with gastrointestional problems that they believed were caused – at least partly – by vaccinations. They claimed those problems contributed to autism and other conditions in the children.

Initial research seemed to support their argument: Unusual levels of measles virus RNA (a type of DNA) was found in certain parts of the kid’s bodies. But on two levels their analysis was refuted: by massive analysis of hundreds of thousands of children and autism, and by carefully examining their scientific method.

Epidemiological studies

Massive amounts of evidence shows that the large increase in autism over the past few decades is not associated with vaccination.

One study in Denmark compared 500,000 children vaccinated against 100,000 who weren’t. They had pretty much the same chance of autism.

The measels, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine was started in 1988 in London and no correlation was found between that and an increase of autism. Additionally, the vaccination efforts initially were distributed in clusters: not everyone got it at once. No such cluster effect was found in autism rates.

Similar data show that introduction of MMR in Japan in 1993 was not correlated with increase in autism rates.  One thing is consistent: analysis of tens of thousands of kids shows again and again no risk for autism associated with vaccine use.

Refuting the science

How might vaccines cause autism? The most prominent theory was that they somehow trigged an “aberrant immune reaction” that caused damage to the brain. The gastrointestional upset, for instance, might allow toxic proteins to reach the brain that otherwise wouldn’t.

The evidence for this theory was that a few kids with autism had been shown to have measles virus RNA in parts of the body where they shouldn’t be, like inside certain blood cells.

Suspicion of this theory was raised when multiple other studies were unable to replicate the findings.

D’souza et al carefully analyzed the reports and showed that their results were most likely because of mistakes. Either because of false positives or because of mistakes in the lab with how the materials were dealt with.

Thimerosal

Another theorized problem was the presence of thimerosal in vaccines. Superficially, it seems insane to include it; it is, after all, mercury, and we all know how dangerous that is.

Thimerosal, however, is a specific type of mercury called ethyl mercury, which is biodegradable and does not cause toxic build up in the body. Similarly large epidemiological studies have shown that it is not associated with autism.

Finally, all vaccines are now available without thimerosal.

Conclusion

There is no denying that diagnoses of autism have really, really increased over the last few decades. But it’s hard to say why. Increased recognition must play a large part, as well as diagnosing milder cases that would have previously been ignored.

It is also possible that other environmental issues play a role.

Vaccines are extremely important to protect children from diseases.

Next Article: Treatments of Autism

You might like:

50 Ways to Make Friends

Do Antidepressants Really Work?

Sources:

Vaccines and Autism: Evidence Does Not Support a Causal Association
No Evidence of Persisting Measles Virus in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells From Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder
Has the Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccine Been Fully Exonerated?

Do you feel

a) like life sucks or is terrible?

b) overwhelmed or constantly anxious?

c) unable to concentrate ?

Therapy might be a good idea.  Here’s why.

We live in a hard world

Some statistics say one out of four people in the United States suffer from some sort of mental disorder.  You have to ask what’s going on.

I think it’s partly because we don’t have the support and structure that we used to.  Things have changed.  Life moves at an incredibly fast pace, and the Internet promotes a lifestyle that is superficial, fleeting and perhaps not satisfying.

Face to face time is replaced with hours spent self-promoting on Facebook and other social sites, trying to be a star.

We’ve forgotten that the most important and most meaningful thing to do is not be a star – but rather, to be there. There for your family, and there with your family and close friends as you go through life together.

Because we don’t have purpose anymore, because life moves so rapidly and is more artificial than ever, we’re suffering on the inside.  Therapy can help.

Therapy

Therapy can help you deal with your challenges, the things that make you cringe and lose sleep.  It can help you confront your greatest fears, and chart your own course.

Modern therapy is not like the psychoanalysis of Freud with a couch and years spent whining about your parents.  Instead, it focuses on the thoughts and assumptions which are holding you back or causing you anxiety.

There are different types of therapy based off different models of psychology, so be sure to pick someone you’re comfortable with.  The best idea is to find a therapist by referral, but if that isn’t possible, make sure to pick someone with credentials and who has experience with the issues you’re dealing with.