Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Marcia Angell

Quote by Marcia Angell

“Few things a doctor does are more important than relieving pain. . . pain is soul destroying. No patient should have to endure intense pain unnecessarily. The quality of mercy is essential to the practice of medicine; here, of all places, it should not be strained.”

Quote by Marcia Angell

Create image

Author

Marcia Angell
Marcia Angell

Marcia Angell is an American physician and medical writer. Born on April 20, 1939, she graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed her residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Angell served as the editor-in-chief of The New England Journal of Medicine, becoming the first woman to hold the position in the journal's history. Throughout her career, she has been committed to improving the quality and transparency of medical research and advocating for medical ethics, particularly in the areas of clinical trials and drug approval. more

You May Also Like

“It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.”

BelieveTwoPleasureDrugJudgmentResearchEnglandMedicineDecadesMedicalConclusionRelyEditorsTrustedPhysiciansJournalMedicationNew EnglandGuidelinesClinicalsPharmacyPharmaceutical IndustryPharmacology
Author:Marcia Angell
Create image

“Consider the clinicaltrials by which drugs are tested in human subjects.5 Before a new drug can enter the market, its manufacturer must sponsor clinicaltrials to show the Food and Drug Administration that the drug is safe and effective, usually as compared with a placebo or dummy pill. The results of all the trials (there may be many) are submitted to the FDA, and if one or two trials are positive—that is, they show effectiveness without serious risk—the drug is usually approved, even if all the other trials are negative.”

IfsHumansMayTwoShowsResultsRiskSubjectsSeriousDrugSafeNegativeTrialsAdministrationTestedPillsEffectivenessApprovedSponsorsFdaDummyPlacebo
Author:Marcia Angell
Create image

“A review of seventy-four clinical trials of antidepressants, for example, found that thirty-seven of thirty-eight positive studies [that praised the drugs] were published. But of the thirty-six negative studies, thirty-three were either not published or published in a form that conveyed a positive outcome.”

FormThreeFoundStudyFourExampleDrugSixNegativeSevenEightTrialsOutcomesThirtyReviewsSeventiesClinicalsAntidepressantsPositive OutcomeThirty EightClinical Trials
Author:Marcia Angell
Create image

“Over the past two decades the pharmaceutical industry has moved very far from its original high purpose of discovering and producing useful new drugs. Now primarily a marketing machine to sell drugs of dubious benefit, this industry uses its wealth and power to co-opt every institution that might stand in its way, including the US Congress, the FDA, academic medical centers, and the medical profession itself.”

WayTwoUseMightPastPurposeWealthIndustryDrugBenefitsMachinesOriginalsInstitutionsSellsMovedIncludingMarketingCongressProfessionDecadesMedicalAcademicDiscoveringOver The PastDubiousPharmaceuticalMedical ProfessionFdaPharmaceutical Industry
Author:Marcia Angell
Create image

“If I was writing a lifestyle book it would have the same advice on every page, and you’d know it all already. Eat lots of fruit and vegetables, and live your whole life in every way as well as you can: exercise regularly as part of your daily routine, avoid obesity, don’t drink too much, don’t smoke, and don’t get distracted from the real, basic, simple causes of ill health. But as we will see, even these things are hard to do on your own, and in reality require wholesale social and political changes.”

IfsKnowsWayWritingWellsBookRealHardWholeRealityPoliticalSocialCausesSimpleToo MuchAdviceExerciseDrinkPagesFruitIllWhole LifeLifestyleSmokeRoutineVegetablesDistractedObesityKnow It AllWholesaleFruits And VegetablesDaily RoutinesIll HealthPolitical Change
Author:Ben Goldacre
Create image

“In the past, [medicalization]has been portrayed as something that doctors inflict on a passive and un-suspecting world - an expansion of the Medical Empire. But in reality, it seems that these reductionist bio-medical stories can appeal to us all, because complex problems often have depressingly-complex causes, and the solutions can be taxing, and unsatisfactory.”

WorldHas BeensStoriesProblemRealitySeemsPastCausesSolutionsDoctorsComplexesMedicalAppealsEmpiresPassiveExpansionBiosComplex Problems
Author:Ben Goldacre
Create image