Brand vs. Generic page. Finally.

At long last the Brand vs. Generic meds page has been renovated and updated. 

As I come across them, I'll add URLs for case reports, studies, etc. that support one side of the issue or the other.

We're in PubMed, Bitches!

Of course the journal is Journal of Medical Internet Research and the article is mostly about consumers bitching about side effects online, but, hey, there we are, going head-to-head with WebMD once again.

Can Online Consumers Contribute to Drug Knowledge? A Mixed-Methods Comparison of Consumer-Generated and Professionally Controlled Psychotropic Medication Information on the Internet

Crazy Meds and Ask a Patient vs. WebMD and former consumer-generated media site Revolution Health on the effects of Lexapro and Seroquel. The results:

Consumer reviews and professional medication descriptions generally reported similar effects of two psychotropic medications but differed in their descriptions and in frequency of reporting. Professional medication descriptions offer the advantage of a concise yet comprehensive listing of drug effects, while consumer reviews offer greater context and situational examples of how effects may manifest in various combinations and to varying degrees. The dispersion of consumer reviews across websites limits their integration, but a brief browsing strategy on the two target medications nonetheless retrieved representative consumer content. Current strategies for filtering online health searches to return only trusted or approved websites may inappropriately address the challenge to identify quality health sources on the Internet because such strategies unduly limit access to an entire complementary source for health information.

The data are clear: WebMD can suck it.

The paper raises two points I constantly reiterate:
1 - Consumer-oriented sites, including this forum, skew negative, which is why I don't depend solely on them for the anecdotal evidence I use in my drug pages.
2 - Like drug company-sponsored studies, drug company-sponsored professionally-run sites tend to  skew positive, which is one reason why I think they are still useful.

You have to really read the article to realize Crazy Meds and Ask a Patient are not total bitchfests about meds, especially since significantly more people taking each med reported they worked better on the consumer-oriented sites than on the professionally-run sites.  I may have to re-evaluate how the stats skew.

Oh, NOW You're Crazy

Brent Arthur Wilson decided that he's crazy after all.  The Montana Supreme Court disagreed.  From the Missoulian:

Brent Arthur Wilson, who insisted on serving as his own lawyer dozens of times during court appearances last year and once threatened to "arrest (the) bond and seize (the) surety" of any attorney who said one word on his behalf, argued on appeal that he never should have been allowed to represent himself.
The court disagreed, and also ruled against Wilson on two other issues.
"Though we acknowledge that Wilson's demeanor with the District Court was unconventional and at times somewhat bizarre, the fact remains that he was found by a mental health evaluator to be mentally capable of making decisions and fit to proceed and act on his own behalf," Justice Patricia Cotter wrote in the decision.
"Mindful of Wilson's right to represent himself if capable of doing so, the District Court was placed in the difficult position of balancing Wilson's constitutional right to counsel with his right to represent himself," she went on. "We conclude the District Court did everything in its power to persuade Wilson to accept counsel, without unduly pressuring him to do so in possible violation of his right to represent himself."

Plus there was this bit during his trial:

"For the record, on the record, let the record show I have no constitutional rights, I want no constitutional rights, I claim no constitutional rights," Wilson said repeatedly during court proceedings.

Be careful of what you wish for and all of that.

Mug Discount & New Bumper Stickers

Zazzle is offering a 30% discount on mugs today (10 November) only, until 11:59 pm Pacific time. In honor of Veterans' Day, which is tomorrow. Enter code:

VETERANSALE4

at checkout in the "Zazzle Coupons/Gift Certificates" box. More details here.

Crazy Meds mugs are here. You're welcome for all the notice.

I've also put up a bunch of new bumper stickers, which you may or may not be able to see when you read this.  A whole bunch of Team stickers: Agoraphobia / Anxiety / Bipolar /  Crazy / Depression / Epilepsy / Manic! / OCD OCD OCD OCD / Panic! / PTSD / Schizophrenia.  As well as: I Feel Fantastic!, My Doctor Can Beat Up Your Doctor, and My Shrink Can Beat Up Your Shrink.  All of which are available as mugs and t-shirts.

Also new is a Team Crazy Meds mug, which I've also done with a solid black background.  But it's not a completely black mug.  Let me know what you think.

I got a My Shrink Can Beat Up Your Shrink and a Medicine Is The Best Medicine mug for my doctor.  I'm impressed by Zazzle's print quality.  The imprints on the pills are really clear.  I have no idea how well they will hold up to dishwashers, microwaving, etc.  But fresh out of the box the 'art work' looks really sharp.