“People often dismiss patient reports forgetting that peer reviewed research is NOT what causes drugs to be pulled from the market. Its purpose is to get drugs approved, not removed.

What got Thalidomide removed from the market? It was the cases of missing arms and legs of the babies  born to the mothers of those who took the drug.

This statement on the importance of anecdotal evidence as opposed to peer reviewed double blind studies is from Dr. Johnathan Cole, MD who is considered to be the father of Psychopharmacology:

“The real world is not perfect. Drugs can and do cause adverse effects which can resemble the manifestations of the illness and arguments about the causes and nature of these adverse events, including suicides, must rest on case reports [anecdotal evidence] and data collected in small studies for other purposes. . . If some cases stand out strikingly, there are logically others where the adverse effect is more subtle.”

. . . Dr. Jonathan Cole, MD

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