AWARE not upfront on drug funding

sligo | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis

Friday March 18, 2005 23:40

by s.fleming

shaunpleamonn at hotmail dot com

The mental health organisation Aware received 90, 490 euros in donations for the year 2003. They refuse to say how much of this money came from individuals with links or associations to pharmaceutical companies promoting the theory that depression is a real disease related to a brain chemical imbalance. It's important to note that these donations are separate from D.A.W.N donations, etc, and no breakdown is given.

The mental health organisation Aware received 90, 490 euro in donations for the year 2003. They refuse to say how much of this money came from individuals with links or associations to pharmaceutical companies promoting the theory that depression is a real disease related to a brain chemical imbalance. It is time that Aware was upfront about the extent of its drug funding. They have taken grants from drug companies such as Lundbeck and I believe their Derry group received a grant from Glaxo -SmithKline who covered up the fact that their ‘anti-depressant’ drug Seroxat could make people suicidal. It should be recognised by the public that such state mental mental health organisations have an agenda to promote the disease or biomedical model of depression in order to further the influence of drug companies allied to the psychiatric profession whose work consists solely in pushing brain disabling drugs and in preserving their own power and interests