Gulf War Veteran Gets Placebos Instead of Real Medicine

[TomInTib]

Those sorry bastards.


A Gulf War veteran undergoing medical treatment said he was given placebos -- or sugar pills -- instead of real medicine.

Like thousands of other soldiers, Army veteran Mike Woods said he developed bizarre symptoms after serving in the first Gulf War -- blackouts, chest pain and numbness in the extremities.

Woods looked to the Veterans Administration for help. He said his VA doctor prescribed him a drug called Obecalp.

"She told me there was this new drug out that would really help me with all of my physical conditions, and my pain. She really wanted me to try it," said Woods.

But when the pill provided no relief, Woods did some research and learned that Obecalp isn't a medicine at all, but a sugar pill. He was shocked to learn the word "obecalp" is placebo spelled backward.

The rest of this outrage is here:
http://www.wsoctv.com/specialreports/7373238/detail.html

[daleanime]

1. Hope to God this is only a story...

because treating anyone like that, especially a veteran, would be outrageous.:grr:

[sam sarrha]

3. this reveils the coverup of the Gulf War Syndrome ,Depleted Uranium.!LINK!

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20870

also Google Depleted Uranium extreme deformatives.. but be warned of grafic birth defects

[Warpy]

2. You can't sue a VA doc for malpractice

but if proven, this is actionable by the state medical licensing board.

The ethics are appalling and completely against the practice acts in most states.

Placebos are used in double blind studies, and patients must sign their permission for the study and acknowledge that the medication may be a dummy pill. In no other case are placebos administered as a part of regular practice.

This doc needs her license pulled.

[RedOnce]

4. The article also goes on to say...

1) "Algia agrees that prescribing placebo to patients who haven't provided their consent is unethical. Although, he said research shows placebos are often effective in making a patient think he's getting better.

"Thirty-five percent of the time placebo will work," he said."


2) "Eyewitness News found a number of reports about doctors who admitted giving unwitting patients sugar pills to make patients think they're getting real treatment."

[RedOnce]

5. Glaxo chief: Our drugs do not work on most patients.

Dec 08, 2003

A senior executive with Britain's biggest drugs company has admitted that most prescription medicines do not work on most people who take them. Allen Roses, worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), said fewer than half of the patients prescribed some of the most expensive drugs actually derived any benefit from them.

It is an open secret within the drugs industry that most of its products are ineffective in most patients but this is the first time that such a senior drugs boss has gone public.

Dr Roses, an academic geneticist from Duke University in North Carolina, spoke at a recent scientific meeting in London where he cited figures on how well different classes of drugs work in real patients. Drugs for Alzheimer's disease work in fewer than one in three patients, whereas those for cancer are only effective in a quarter of patients. Drugs for migraines, for osteoporosis, and arthritis work in about half the patients, Dr Roses said. Most drugs work in fewer than one in two patients mainly because the recipients carry genes that interfere in some way with the medicine, he said.

"The vast majority of drugs - more than 90 per cent - only work in 30 or 50 per cent of the people," Dr Roses said. "I wouldn't say that most drugs don't work. I would say that most drugs work in 30 to 50 per cent of people. Drugs out there on the market work, but they don't work in everybody."

PharmaLeader: http://www.pharmaleader.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=665
The Independent - original article - requires registration: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article81625.ece

It was unethical. However, a 35% Efficacy Rate seems to be in the typical range for most drugs.