Psychiatry is facing unprecedented exposure for drugging children with unapproved psychotropic drugs, and for ties to drug companies. In less than a week we’ve seen coverage in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, Boston Globe and LA Times, among others.
From the top down, exposure of psychiatry over the last six months goes like this:
- Former head of National Institutes of Health and leading mental health talk show host, Fred K. Goodwin, was exposed for not reporting pharmaceutical money to listeners or producers. He promoted such things as the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children, which undoubtedly contributed to the continued rise in dangerous and unproven antipsychotic drugs for this use.
- The infamous Dr. Joe Biederman, Harvard researcher and noted promoter of the Bipolar diagnosis in children was exposed for taking far more money from drug companies than he reported to the University. Yesterday the New York Times reported that internal documents and e-mails between a drug company and Biederman showed him pressuring the drug company to open a research center to “promote the commercial goals of [drug company name deleted].” While Biederman continues to be under investigation, he is credited for helping to fuel the 40 fold increase in the bipolar diagnosis for kids, which of course was accompanied by exploding prescriptions for dangerous, off-label drugs.
- Then there was the exposure of Karen D. Wagner at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, who according to US Senator Charles Grassley, failed to disclose tens of thousands of dollars in drug company money while writing guidelines for the drugging of children. Wagner wrote a chapter of psychiatry’s textbook on psychopharmacology dealing with the treatment of children during this time as well.ÂÂ
Of course, the editors of the textbook would have gone out of their way to guard against conflicts of interest, right? That’s what you would think…
Psychopharmacology textbook editors Charles Nemeroff and Alan Schatzburg were both exposed for failing to reveal substantial funding from drug companies.
This isn’t a complete list by any means, but I think you get the picture. Psychiatry, from top to bottom, is riddled with conflict of interest allegations, and drug companies denying the off-label promotion of their drugs while industry “thought leaders” continue to be found with their hands in the pharmaceutical “cookie jar.”
There is legislation both federally and in the state of Texas to require drug companies to disclose their payments to doctors so that these marketing schemes can be known about up front. Write your own state legislators to introduce and pass legislation to audit psychiatric outcomes, prosecute psychiatric fraud and abuse, and eliminate psychiatrists and psychiatric funding from our schools and communities.