Reveals the research reports that cited unusual patient deaths that occurred while testing the heart drug Tambocor and traces how the unsafe drug, and several like it, were released anyway, resulting in the deaths of thousands. 60,000 first printing.
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Important piece of the jigsaw showing unscientific medicine,
By Don.Benjamin@tip.csiro.au (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: DEADLY MEDICINE: WHY TENS OF THOUSANDS OF HEART PATIENTS DIED IN AMERICA'S WORST DRUG DISASTER (Hardcover)
Ralph Moss wrote an excellent review of this book in the Spring 1997 edition of the Cancer Chronicles. I am writing only to put his review into context. There have been many books written describing the shortcomings of medicine, particularly those questioning claims of the efficacy of medical intervention. These include Robert Mendelsohn's Confessions of A Medical Heretic; Richard Taylor's Medicine out of Control; Ivan Illich's Medical Nemesis; the New Medical Foundation's Dissent in Medicine; Samuel Epstein's The Politics of Cancer; Ralph Moss' Cancer Industry and Questioning Chemotherapy; Ulrich Abel's Chemotherapy of advanced epithelial cancer - a critical survey; What Doctors Don't Tell You's Cancer Handbook, What's Really Working; and Neville Hodgkinson's AIDS, the failure of scientific medicine. (I have also published two papers questioning the efficacy of surgical treatment of cancer in Medical Hypotheses.) These together support and explain the claim in the editorial in the British Medical Journal of October 1991 (Vol 303: 198-99) "Where is the wisdom...? The poverty of medical evidence" that "Only about 15% of medical interventions are supported by solid evidence... This is partly because only 1% of the articles in medical journals are scientifically sound". Thomas Moore's earlier (1989) book Heart Failure describes the poor record of treating heart problems with bypass surgery, balloon angioplasty and drugs to lower serum cholesterol. Moore's more recent book homes in on particular drugs such as those used to treat arrhythmia. With deaths from heart disease accounting for more than 40% of all deaths these two books on the inefficacy of treatments for heart problems fill an important gap. As a scientist I found the section explaining how "surrogate endpoints" are used instead of actual therapeutic benefits to test efficacy particularly useful. It explains why so many claims for the efficacy of chemotherapy are invalid. It is a pity that the book is now out of print.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read on drug effectiveness and commercialization,
By Andrew J Brunskill "jaberwok" (Edmonds, WA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: DEADLY MEDICINE: WHY TENS OF THOUSANDS OF HEART PATIENTS DIED IN AMERICA'S WORST DRUG DISASTER (Hardcover)
This is an excellent account of the effects of allowing marketing of Tamnbocor (flecainide) as an anti-arrhythmic based on "surrogate" intermediate endpoints. Later there was recognition that in fact the drug was associated with increased cardiac death rates when a "gold standard" randomized controlled trial was undertaken. It also shows the problematic relationships between the payment and support of academic researchers into drug effectiveness and the drug firms, many of whose products have been life saving and life transforming. A very well balanced book and very enjoyable reading. The author erroneously describes RA Fisher as an American Genius which would irritate the very English (& later Australian) Cambridge professor of Genetics!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is an important book,
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This review is from: DEADLY MEDICINE: WHY TENS OF THOUSANDS OF HEART PATIENTS DIED IN AMERICA'S WORST DRUG DISASTER (Hardcover)
In 1989, tens of thousands of people died from a medical mistake, and yet few Americans know the story. This book presents the well-researched facts, which knowledgable people don't dispute. Still, the story just doesn't move anyone. There is no blood. The deaths were usually sudden, with no chance for lingering sympathy. And there is no single villian. Our traditional society is not able to handle this type of tragedy. Since 1989, the story has repeated itself with other medicines and out society still does not know how to respond.More people need to read this book.
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