Truly disappointed in Jacobs here. Sounds like he is now under the wing of Merck.
We may be mixing up cause and effect her guys. I don’t think it’s saying that pre existing mental conditions is the cause of PFS, I think it saying that those with some family history of mental illness/ mental conditions are effected.
Having said all that, not only is the abstract so poorly written and nonsensical, but i don’t think Jacobs or his helper, has a firm grasp of both the mental, and real undeniable PHYSICAL changes that can happen and did happen over night. Finally, I saw Jacobs, i never trusted jacobs, I think him holding himself out to successful treat a condition with no known or understood underlying cause is tantamount to fraud. And I’ll tell you this, im VERY close to letting the New York State courts decide that issue
He is saying that the mental aspect of PFS is not necessarily caused by Finasteride itself. He is saying it could be equated with prior or underlying conditions but provides no specifics or evidence beyond interviews and self reporting.
As someone who was a very enthusiastic individual prior to PFS I cannot overstate how wrong he is. PFS is a potent condition, it can destroy your mind overnight. It will make you a depressed person, it will make every single tiny insignificant problem seem like a impossible mountain.
The Italians already showed drastic reductions in brain chemicals… so his study without any raw numbers, any actual biological, physical data means relatively little in the context of the overall picture.
You’re right, Jacobs is well behind the play. He has only ever been guessing, personally I felt this community has held him in too higher regard just because he is seeing pfs patients.
I wouldn’t be to concerned with Dr Jacobs and his opinions. In the UK the NHS and it’s army of Endo’s have said for years that any man with symptom’s of Low T who have a T level above 8 nmol/L has depression and is basically nuts. Even when men have had a T level below 8 nmol/L they have accused the patient of being nuts and caused a lot suffering in the process. The NHS does not want to pay for a man’s hormone treatment and will happily send men in the other direction by playing the depression card. It’s not just hormone problems that get branded with depression but many other medical conditions. Dr Jacobs can treat PFS patients for depression and when they don’t recover he can blame the patient’s mind rather than look like an incompetent doctor. Those of us who are well read will be avoiding Jacobs. This Dr isn’t stupid he will know that PFS can’t be cured via treatments for depression. I say this with some confidence because I’ve come across Dr’s who are against treating men with hormones and are under great pressure to hold this opinion or know it’s the right thing to say for the sake of their careers. Jacobs interest in PFS will be either due to financial gain or to improve his career prospects. He has a bunch of data on PFS patients so there is nothing stopping him speaking with a Merck rep off record and offer to produce a paper that discredits PFS. Dr’s and scientists have been pimping themselves out to Corporates and big companies for a long time it’s nothing new. The Foundation will still continue it’s studies regardless of Jacobs. His study is based on paper-thin research it shouldn’t hold much weight and we should see it for just that. I have shown Dr’s various studies and they have pointed out which one’s are to be taken seriously and which are not. Study size and duration of study are very important factors in medical research. I don’t think something as complicated as PFS can be easily overcome by the medical community, this is a marathon and I expect more Dr’s like Jacobs will say negative things about this condition.
There’s no evidence that Dr. Jacobs is “under the wing of Merck” and to say so makes us seem like conspiratorial lunatics. If you actually read the article, these guys don’t say that PFS is not real and they don’t say PFS is really all due to pre-existing problems. They are trying to determine what risk factors may make individuals more likely to develop PFS. Taking finasteride for one is a requirement to develop PFS but there is a very legitimate question as to what differentiates those who do develop problems from those that apparently do not. The article was probably written by his assistant Anne and I think everybody agrees it is poorly written. The article is in a low end journal and will probably not be taken seriously by the medical community. They didn’t even really gather the data properly and what they presented is not compelling. One thing I cannot emphasize enough is that we need to be rational and focused in our objective of getting doctors and the public to take this seriously. To point fingers every which way because we want to bring down the people who did this to us is not going to work and will backfire. Unfortunately this will take a very long time. It took until this year for shareholders to settle an $800m case with Merck regarding their improprieties surrounding Vioxx. It would be great to see people locked up who deserve to be in prison but at least $800m is real money.
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I said “sounds like” relax chief.
No he probably isn’t but I was making a conjecture at his lack of insight into the condition, be it purposeful or just ignorance.
Take a step back PFS cowboys and don’t be so ready to accuse eachother of “building bridges that don’t exist”.
I get it. I am so angry at this system for causing this problem, abandoning us, and sometimes even exploiting us. However, I do feel that a lot of guys act in ways that they become their own enemies.
I don’t know what Jacobs’ deal is and nobody here does. He publicly says he’s cured all these guys. I asked his assistant to put me in contact with a SINGLE ONE and all she did is offer to connect me to some guy that is suicidal and feels alone. She says something like they lose contact with the ones who get better since they no longer need help. 
At the same time, she said she hoped I was better since she hadn’t heard from me for awhile but I really just gave up on them.
I do think we should rework the message that’s conveyed on some of the forum’s official references to Dr. Jacobs. I’ll reach out to Mew about this. But really we have to do our best to remain calm and collected while we continue to fight. Slowly but surely we are making progress.
I am one of those his assistant is probably saying was cured. I had two consults with him, while understanding and willing to work with you. He never came close to curing me.
this study will be no match for real data with real numbers when the PFS studies come out.
this guy is just another doctor looking for attention.
i agree with soccerguy, someone should kick his ass
If you have any doubts about his intentions, let me assure you, he is a fucking con. He wants your money. He WILL exploit you. Wake up.
I don’t harbor any illusions or have doubts about the doctor. I do have doubts about declaring all these conspiracies as fact without supporting evidence. That type of paranoia, justified or not, will cause doctors and the wider community to consider us unstable rather than legitimate patients.
Accept what happened to us and go about trying to make it better in whatever productive way you can. It’s not an easy task but there is nothing you can do about it. A small doctor and his uninfluential article are not very relevant.
Not relevant? Are you kidding? This asshole just wrote up a phony article using a bullshit questionnaire on a dozen or so people to suggest that PFS has a huge psychological component to it. This guy is the enemy and he is relevant because he has two letters after his name and placards on the wall that make him a supposed authority that OTHERS will heed or listen to. We need to quash guys like this. He denigrates this condition while making money off of the desperate fools that go to him and dish out hundreds and even thousands of dollars.
A small doctor and his non influencial article are you kidding me!
Do you even know how doctors work?! They go tonpubmed everyday when they have doubts of something! Having some asshole publish a “study” based on a stupid questionnaire, can have impact for us in the sense that it is one more paper saying fin is fine when you complain to your doctor and he opens pubmed.
Fuck this guy im going to write him an email saying how much of a looser he is!!
This article is published in a low quality, low impact factor journal which matters to doctors. Secondly, the article does not even say “fin is fine”. It doesn’t draw significant conclusions because there are no controls. In fact, it says “there were no statistically significant trends in personality traits reported.” Studies published in respected journals by respected institutions will have a much larger impact. These will hopefully be coming soon.
projects.propublica.org/docdollars/
openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/
My new favourite websites!
$ 16 to Jacobs from Merck projects.propublica.org/d4d-arc … s/14250563
$ 5000+ to Goldstein
~$ 100,000 to Mohit Khera
~$ 25,000 to Shalender Bhasin
Many $100K each to Brigham and Baylor
Lol merck took Jacobs out for dinner
“There’s no evidence that Dr. Jacobs is “under the wing of Merck” and to say so makes us seem like conspiratorial lunatics.”
I guess a $16 lunch with Merck was the best way to present Jacobs with a brown envelope stuffed with reddies.
$16 is not even a very good lunch in Midtown. They probably bought him Chipotle. Good find, Oscar for researching docs!
The study seems more or less inconclusive, but does not attempt to disprove PFS’s existence. I say move on. Are there other endos in NYC that might be a better ally?
I found Jacobs useful for ordering the proper tests, explaining things. This was 4 years ago though. It’s possible he’s overbooked now and just winging the whole thing.
I’ve actually eaten at the Chipotle near his office lol.