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Alan Cassels on Muck Rack

Alan Cassels

Victoria
As seen in: Nature, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy, The Toronto Star, The Epoch Times, STAT, The Nation, Montreal Gazette, Vancouver Sun, La Presse and
Covers:  Disease mongering; pharmaceutical policy; evidence-based therapeutics;
Doesn't Cover: sports. Not ever.
Dedicated to preventing overdiagnosis through research, writing and advocacy. Time to stop turning ordinary people into patients.

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Alan Cassels’s Biography

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Co-author of the 2005 best seller Selling Sickness on the corporate-backed making of disease. Studied and wrote about the history of evidence-based medicine in The Cochrane Collaboration: Medicine's Best-Kept Secret. Most fascinated with disease mongering and the role of outside actors, particularly those connected to clinical research, pharmaceutical development and health policy who are all implicated in the medicalization of everyday life.

Alan Cassels’s Journalist Portfolio

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Cycling and the middle-aged man: More urodynamics than aerodynamics?

Cycling and the middle-aged man: More urodynamics than aerodynamics?

Last summer, for the third year in a row, more than 4000 people (mostly middle-aged men) pedalled their road …

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Rich? Inquisitive? Confused? Book a safari to the "wild side" of private boutique medicine

Rich? Inquisitive? Confused? Book a safari to the "wild side" of private boutique medicine

Most people wouldn't think of Alberta as an exotic safari destination. But for customers who have the money, …

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Infectious anxiety disorder

Infectious anxiety disorder

At the risk of people worrying even more than they already do about their health, we propose adding a new dia…

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Drugs in the news: an analysis of Canadian newspaper coverage of new prescription drugs

Drugs in the news: an analysis of Canadian newspaper coverage of new prescription drugs

Background: Patients routinely cite the media, after physicians and pharmacists, as a key source of informati…

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Disordering normal 5.0 - Common Ground

Disordering normal 5.0 - Common Ground

Here comes the new DSM DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels * The people's briefing note on prescription drugs Towards t…

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Demand answers about the drugs you're prescribed

Demand answers about the drugs you're prescribed

What's happening in the world of antipsychotics might keep you awake at night. WHY DOES IT SEEM LIKE everyone…

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Articles

“Ask Your Doctor:” The Media’s Most Dangerous Tagline

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By Alan Cassels
| Todayville
Travelling to the US never fails to put me in touch with a part of American culture that I find particularly fascinating, but disturbing. Drugs. Drugs and more Drugs. I’m talking about the in-your-face, 24/7, marketing of the newest, most expensive pharmaceuticals on the planet. All in the name of health, of course. You might argue, but so what? Every other consumer product gets advertised in the US—almost everywhere, to everyone, perhaps except tobacco.
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“Ask your Doctor:” The media’s most dangerous tagline

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By Alan Cassels
| Daily Telegraph NZ
Travelling to the US never fails to put me in touch with a part of American culture that I find particularly fascinating, but disturbing. Drugs. Drugs and more Drugs. I’m talking about the in-your-face, 24/7, marketing of the newest, most expensive pharmaceuticals on the planet. All in the name of health, of course. You might argue, but so what? Every other consumer product gets advertised in the US—almost everywhere, to everyone, perhaps except tobacco.
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‘Ask Your Doctor’: How Pharma Advertising Hijacks the Doctor-Patient Relationship

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By Alan Cassels
| The Defender Verified
By Alan Cassels Travelling to the U.S. never fails to put me in touch with a part of American culture that I find particularly fascinating, but disturbing. Drugs. Drugs and more drugs. I’m talking about the in-your-face, 24/7, marketing of the newest, most expensive pharmaceuticals on the planet. All in the name of health, of course. You might argue, but so what? Every other consumer product gets advertised in the U.S. — almost everywhere, to everyone, perhaps except tobacco.
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See all 109 licensed articles (112 Total)

Interview

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Have you ever used a typewriter?

yes

What does it mean to be a journalist?

Endlessly fascinating, always learning.

How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?

Best by email. Most interested in stories that I have a deep experience in, especially pharmaceuticals, drug policy and disease mongering.