May 1, 2013

DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs Dear new member of the Legislative Assembly: • You’re likely facing a steep learning curve in getting used to your new job so I’d like to offer you some translation help. For free. You can expect that, just as you are settling into your new office in the Legislature and...

Mar 1, 2013

Here comes the new DSM DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs Towards the end of May, the fifth version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), the iconic bible of psychiatry, is coming off the presses after much revision and delay. It’s bound to keep people asking, “Am I normal or do I...

Feb 1, 2013

DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs In my inaugural column in this magazine almost eight years ago I wrote a story called “The media life cycle of the wonder drug story.” It’s time for an update. That article concerned the drug Herceptin (trastuzumab), which is prescribed to women who have been treated for...

Jan 1, 2013

DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs 2012 is behind us, thank goodness. And what a year it’s been. I have anointed it “The Year of Prevention Propaganda.” Wikipedia tells us propaganda is “a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position by...

Dec 1, 2012

embracing uncertainty in vaccine policy DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs I have to make an admission: I’m somewhat of a coward in that I’m not particularly crazy about getting in the middle of a war. That’s why I don’t really like writing about vaccines; there are few things in healthcare as polarizing,...

Nov 1, 2012

DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs What is “Eminence-based Medicine”? It means relying on the opinion of a medical specialist or other prominent health official when it comes to health matters, rather than relying on a careful assessment of relevant research evidence. You might be asking, “Who am I to...

Oct 1, 2012

Aggressive approach may lead to bigger problems DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs For most people, taking drugs for high blood pressure seems like the right thing to do, but is it? That’s the question I’m asking as I look ever more closely at what the research says about the wisdom of feeding...

Aug 1, 2012

Watch out for the marketing spin DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs • Judy M., who lives in Victoria, sent me an email asking what I knew about a vaccine to prevent a truly nasty condition called shingles. Being the third such request I’d received in as many weeks, I figured it was time to take a closer look at...

Jul 1, 2012

What you don’t know can hurt you DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs • I’ve been following the cholesterol saga – both the marketing and the science of the dreaded “high cholesterol” – for more than 15 years and I have come to a single conclusion: people, and I mean all of us, including specialists,...

Jun 1, 2012

DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels The people's briefing note on prescription drugs •   The Canadian Cancer Society recently came out with some very welcome news –Canada’s cancer death rate is dropping. One of the biggest contributing factors has been prevention. Simply put, fewer of us are dying of cancer than in the past. And if we do get it,...