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It would be good for the network to support this. Jan ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul@home" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2007 5:57 PM Subject: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] urgent support needed for SUG Dear network, I have previously mentioned the Seroxat SSRI User Group (SUG) [http://www.seroxatusergroup.org.uk/] to this list. I am asking as a matter of urgency (before 28th Nov) whether our community psychology network could offer support and solidarity to SUG by endorsing the organisation (at the very least) or coming up with a short statement of solidarity/support (at the very most). SUG have a meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown next week to put their case forward. To have a statement of support from a collective of psychologists and users of psychological services might help them. Here are some of the aims of SUG: SUG are seeking social justice through holding to account: * GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for criminal activities related to the withholding of, on commercial grounds, clinical trial data that showed GSK's drug Seroxat (an SSRI anti-depressant medication prescribed to people diagnosed with, inter alia, depression, anxiety disorders and sexual dysfunction) lacked efficacy and was unsafe * GSK in particular and the pharmaceutical industry in general for the social harm caused by the over-medicalisation of social problems and for putting drug profit before public health * the government for failing to implement the recommendations of the House of Commons Health Committee Report into the Influence of the Pharmaceutical Industry (2005). Among other things, the report recommended that the pharmaceutical industry in the UK be more tightly regulated and to move responsibility for representing and protecting the interests of the pharmaceutical industry out of the Department of Health and into the Department of Trade and Industry (at present the Dept of Health has the responsibility both to protect public health AND protect/promote the economic interests of the pharmaceutical industry). * the medical and allied professions for not ensuring that their members are adequately trained to ensure: ~ they recognise adverse drug reactions in patients; ~ properly judge clinical trial data on drug efficacy and safety so that they are not duped by drug company marketing practices; ~ deal with drug company professionals in a way commensurate with protecting public health ~ coroners are made aware and make use of clinical data that shows the risk of death from taking SSRI medication. SUG is simultaneously trying to offer support to all those who have been harmed by taking SSRI medication. This includes, among other things, providing information and advice on how to seek legal redress against the pharmaceutical industry and on how to cope with and withdraw from SSRI medication. SUG is doing all of this on a budget of around £200 per year! This network proved to be very keen in taking a stance against the use of CBT. Has our network the courage to go much further than this and to be as keen to support SUG's fight against the power and might of the pharmaceutical industry? I hope so ... The pharmaceutical industry knows how to play dirty and how to protect it's corporate interests. Of course, that industry may be too powerful or we may be too weak to offer any protection or support for SUG. I hope not.... p Paul Duckett Division of Psychology and Social Change Manchester Metropolitan University England Phone +44 161 247 2552 Fax +44 161 247 6364 email: [log in to unmask] ___________________________________ COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the UK. To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/COMMUNITYPSYCHUK.HTML For any problems or queries, contact the list moderator Rebekah Pratt on [log in to unmask] or Grant Jeffrey on [log in to unmask] ___________________________________ COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the UK. To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/COMMUNITYPSYCHUK.HTML For any problems or queries, contact the list moderator Rebekah Pratt on [log in to unmask] or Grant Jeffrey on [log in to unmask]