OT? Expert or Pharma Shill-- article

[Guest guest]

Biederman and Goodwin had their hands all over global drugging

policies for autistic children. Goodwin had widely theorized that

bipolar disorder was a " shadow " form of genetic autism. Both their

work had direct impact on the practices of autism " experts " in every

major institution in the world. Biederman had done trials with

fenfluramine, lithium and antipsychotics on children with autism, had

opened a program at Mass General to include " treatment " (more drug

trials) on autistic children and was rated the third most influential

psychiatrist internationally:

http://tinyurl.com/5c5agn

http://www2.kenes.com/adhd/Documents/Biederman_s_CV.PDF

http://tinyurl.com/5m9oxb

and

http://www.nldline.com/ratey.htm

And many more.

Subject: NYT EDITORIAL: EXPERT OR PHARMA SHILL?

To: " Infomail1ahrp (DOT) org "

Date: Sunday, November 30, 2008, 9:31 AM

ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION

Promoting Openness, Full Disclosure, and Accountability

http://www.ahrp.org and http://ahrp.blogspot.com

FYI

The stench of corrupt practices by psychiatry's peer anointed

" experts " is now a matter of public record. So is the cover-up by

elite academic institutions.

The editors of The New York Times state: " appalling conflicts of

interest throw into doubt the advice rendered and the research

performed by two prominent psychiatrists who have received

substantial funding from the pharmaceutical industry. "

The most recently 'outed' psychiatrists whose disgraceful professional

and personal misconduct is documented in internal corporate

documents: Dr. ph Biederman, of Harvard University, and Dr.

Frederick Goodwin, former director of the National Institute of

Mental Health.

Dr. Goodwin and his long-running program, " The Infinite Mind, " on

National Public Radio were kicked off the air only after Sen.

Grassley made public Dr. Goodwin's financial conflicts of interest.

Dr. Goodwin covertly promoted psychotropic drugs: he mischaracterized

the safety of antidepressants, while concealing substantial payments

from GlaxoKline, maker of the antidepressant, Paxil.

Dr. Biederman continues to hold sway as the influential professor of

psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and Chief of Clinical / Research

Programs in pediatric psychopharmacology at Massachusetts General

Hospital. Indeed, Dr. Biederman is " credited " with a 40-fold (that's

4,000%) increase the use antipsychotics in children. He bears major

responsibility for the harm these drugs have produced in children,

such as 4-year old Riley, who died of drug toxicity.

http://ahrp.blogspot.com/2007/02/4-year-old-rebecca-riley-casualty-

of.html

Both Drs. Goodwin and Biederman are considered pillars of American

psychiatry: both have been showered with awards and " honors " by their

professional peers as well by industry supported " advocacy "

groups--such as CHADD, NAMI, NARSAD--all of whom shill for industry.

Dr. Biederman's biography is posted on the Harvard University website:

http://www.mgh.harvard.edu/pediatricpsych/staff/biederman.html

" Dr. Biederman has been the recipient of the American Psychiatric

Association Blanche Ittelson Award for Excellence in Child Psychiatric

Research, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Charlotte Norbert Rieger Award for Scientific Achievement. He has

been inducted into the CHADD " Hall of Fame " . Dr Biederman has also

been selected every year since its inception into the Best Doctors

in America " compilation of the best physicians in the country.

Dr. Biederman has been a mentor to more than 15 junior investigators

in the field. He is on the editorial board of multiple journals, a

reviewer for most of the Psychiatric journals, and has served as a

grant reviewer in the Child Psychopathology and Treatment Review

Committee of the NIMH. Dr. Biederman is the author and co-author of

close to 600 scientific articles, 650 scientific abstracts, and 70

book chapters.

In 2000, Dr. Biederman pioneered and established a Stanley Foundation

Center at the Massachusetts General Hospital dedicated to the

treatment of pediatric bipolar disorder. Dr. Biederman was the

recipient of the 1998 NAMI Exemplary Psychiatrist award. He was also

the recipient of the 2002 NARSAD Senior Investigator award. Since

2002 Dr. Biederman has been Associate Editor and from 2005-2006

Deputy Editor for Child Psychiatry in Biological Psychiatry, ranked

as the third most impactful scientific journal in Psychiatry. In

2005 Dr. Biederman was appointed Chair of the section on

ADHD at the World Psychiatric Association. He was also recently

selected by the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society Awards committee as

the recipient of the 2007 Outstanding Psychiatrist Award for

Research. In 2007, Dr. Biederman received the Excellence in Research

Award from the New England Council of Child and Adolescent

Psychiatry. He was also awarded the Mentorship Award from the

Department of Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital in

September.

As of March 2007, Dr. Biederman has been ranked as the second highest

producer of high-impact papers in psychiatry overall throughout the

world with 235 papers cited a total of 7048 times over the past 10

years as determined by the Institute for Scientific Information

(ISI). The same organization ranked Dr. Biederman at #1 in terms of

total citations to his papers published on ADD/ADHD in the past

decade. Dr. Biederman's work is supported by multiple federal and

pharmaceutical industry grants. "

Dr. Goodwin's biography, posted on Best Practice:

http://www.best-practice.net/about/leadershipteam/bio.asp?

FN=frederickkgoodw

in & ACPgID=12 & ACPgImgID=4

" Dr. Goodwin is a recipient of the major research awards in his field

including the Hofheimer Prize from the American Psychiatric

Association, the A.E. Award from The Soc. Of Biological

Psychiatry, the Psychopharmacology Research Award from the American

Psychological Association, the International -Monika Prize for

Research in Depression, the A. Strecker Award, the Falcone

Prize from NARSAD, the McAlpin Research Award from the National

Mental Health Association, the Distinguished Service Award from NAMI,

and the Research Award from the American Foundation for Suicide

Prevention and the Lifetime Achievement Award from International

Review Of Bipolar Disorders He was the first recipient of the

Psychiatrist of the Year from Psychiatric Times, and the

Fawcett Humanitarian Award of the NDMDA, the Public Service Award

from the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

(FASEB), and the Hope Award from the Depression and Bipolar Support

Alliance (DBSA). In 1998 he was elected and served as President of

the Psychiatric Research Society. "

The Times calls upon universities and professional societies " to crack

down on conflicts of interest, and for Congress to pass legislation

that will bring hidden conflicts into the open. "

However, the corrupting influence pharmaceutical industry money on

medicine--and psychiatry's disgraced leadership in particular--will

not end with generic disclosures that conceal the $$$ amounts. Drug

manufacturers pay fees for services rendered--the higher the fees the

more substantial the services.

Furthermore, it is disingenuous to claim that universities and

professional societies knew nothing about the financial ties of its

leading psychiatrists. If we knew, how could Harvard administrators

claim, they not know?

Indeed, universities, such as Harvard, and professional societies

such as the American Psychiatric Association, are themselves the

recipients of substantial--multi-million dollar--financial support

from the prescription drug industry. These institutions have high

stakes in ensuring the profitability of that industry.

The needed prescription for reform is not merely posting a laundry

list of corporations that fund physician / scientists.

What's needed is mandatory open access to ALL the research data--

whether funded by taxpayers or drug manufacturers. Only when ALL of

the data is independently analyzed will the integrity of science-

based medicine be restored.

To achieve transparency--which is the essential ingredient for

scientific integrity--federal legislation is needed:

1. Requiring the FDA to post ALL clinical trial data submitted by

manufacturers;

2. Prohibiting government agencies from awarding grants to scientists

who refuse to sign a contractual obligation to make ALL their drug

research data available--no matter who the sponsor is, whether the

findings are positive or negative, whether published or not.

See J & J Risperdal documents detailing fees paid for Dr. Biederman's

services and J & Js list of KOLs (key opinion leaders in psychiatry):

http://psychrights.org/Research/Digest/NLPs/Risperdal/081112Opp2Bieder

manQua

sh-Seal.pdf

Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav

veracare@...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/opinion/30sun2.html

THE NEW YORK TIMES

November 30, 2008

Editorial

Expert or Shill?

More evidence has emerged of appalling conflicts of interest that

throw into

doubt the advice rendered and the research performed by two prominent

psychiatrists who have received substantial funding from the

pharmaceutical

industry. The revelations prove, once again, the need for

universities and

professional societies to crack down on conflicts of interest, and for

Congress to pass legislation that will bring hidden conflicts into

the open.

Earlier this year, Congressional investigators discovered that Dr.

ph

Biederman, a world-renowned child psychiatrist at Harvard Medical

School and

Massachusetts General Hospital, had failed to report to Harvard at

least

$1.4 million in income from drug companies, in violation of the

university's

conflict-of-interest guidelines.

Now, internal drug company e-mail and documents that surfaced in a

lawsuit

have sketched out what looks like an unsavory collaboration between

Dr.

Biederman and & to generate and disseminate data that

would

support use of an antipsychotic drug, Risperdal, in children, a

controversial target group.

The various documents indicate that Dr. Biederman repeatedly asked a

& subsidiary to fund a research center at Massachusetts

General to

focus on children and adolescents with bipolar disorders and that the

company provided almost $1 million. Disturbingly, one of the center's

publicly stated missions, along with improving the psychiatric care of

children, was to " move forward the commercial goals of J. & J. "

The company also drafted a scientific abstract on Risperdal for Dr.

Biederman to sign - as if he were the author - before it was

presented at a

professional meeting. And it sought his advice on how to handle the

uncomfortable fact, not mentioned in the abstract, that children given

placebos, not just those given Risperdal, also improved significantly.

Dr. Biederman's work and reputation have helped fuel a huge increase

in the

use of powerful, risky and expensive antipsychotic medicines in young

people, an upsurge that brought a warning recently from a federally

appointed panel of experts. Now it is hard to know whether he has been

speaking as an independent expert or a paid shill for the drug

industry.

Congressional investigators also recently reported that Frederick

Goodwin,

an influential psychiatrist who has been hosting a popular weekly

program on

public radio, earned at least $1.3 million by giving marketing

lectures for

drug makers who potentially stood to benefit from the recommendations

he

made on the program. He has rightly been removed from the air.

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company