Peter Gøtzsche - How to survive in an Overmedicated World? -

Nowadays every patient has access to information regarding a diagnosis or treatment for an ailment by a single click. This looks like a positive trend, but there are concerns. Critics are drawing attention to the changing relationship between patient and doctor, and the impact of unreliable online information. According to critical researcher Peter Gøtzsche it is still possible to gain information at home in a responsible manner and thereby improving the relationship between patient and doctor. On the occasion of his latest book, Gøtzsche will speak at De Balie about how patients can effectively take control and will engage in a debate about the advantages and disadvantages of the more assertive patient.

In How to Survive in an Overmedicated World Peter Gøtzsche is providing patients some tools to identify reliable information in the labyrinth of different interests, facts, opinions and good intentions from doctors, aid workers and the pharmaceutical industry. How does one know if a website, a medical specialist or a story in a magazine is trustworthy? Peter Gøtzsche will engage in a conversation led by Natasja van den Berg with Rob Dijkstra (Head of the Dutch College of General Practitioners) and former doctor and epidemiologist Dick Bijl. Bijl is known for asking critical questions about the excessive usage of medicines in his book Het pillenprobleem. Is it necessary and responsible that so many people use so many medicines?

About Peter Gøtzsche
Peter Gøtzsche used to work in the pharmaceutical industry but he revolted. In his book Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime (2013) he exposes the pharmaceutical industries and their charade of fraudulent behaviour and in Deadly Psychiatry and Organised Denial (2015) Gøtzsche explains in evidence-based detail why the way we currently use psychiatric drugs does far more harm than good.