Well, so much for me-tooism. The ineffable LA Times, which actually does get things right occasionally, reports today the finding of a major government study “that at least a quarter of clinically depressed patients who failed to achieve a complete remission with one antidepressant succeeded by adding a drug or by switching drugs.”
Whoda thunk it? After all, did the Great Marcia Angell—-physician, economist, courageous siren with respect to The Truth About the Drug Companies—-not solemnly inform us awhile back that only two or three drugs in any given class are needed, and that further research and development investment in given classes is a social waste? And that the evil pharmaceutical producers are interested in profits and little else? And that advertising—-the provision of information—-is wasteful, and the the drug market simply does not work in some sense, ad infinitum? Well, yes, indeed she did. And indeed did she get virtually everything wrong in her silly book. Such are the fruits of economic analysis conducted by noneconomists with an ax to grind.
The LA Times published this latest report in the Science and Medicine section; Marcia’s “findings” were trumpeted on the front page, above the fold. But progress is to be welcomed.
