Posted on 12/01/2008 12:07:54 AM PST by neverdem
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. Joseph 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 Johnson & Johnson 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 Johnson & Johnson 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...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Global AIDS crisis overblown? Some dare to say so
Eating tomatoes 'turns kids into criminals' It's an old story. Has another double-blind, randomised trial been repeated? Maybe they got something.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
Well, well, well. Take a good look at the people who really profit from drugging children. They do it inside the schoolyard.
The drug companies have long been targeting children with drugs, risky or not, that will control their behavior. They know that a growing number of parents have no clue about parenting, use their children as “trophy” kids or someone to give them back the love they never got as children, and now are only interested in having zombie beings around that can be manipulated into a trance like state that are less likely to annoy them.
In the article the NY SLIMES doing CYA for NPR: ‘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’.
Firestorm at the FDA lately, particularly with the questions about some of the statin drug studies.
I will say this. I don’t give a rats patootie if Vitamin C is good for me or not. I just wish I could expect (and get) honesty from drug companies and government about the issue.
And since Vitamin C MIGHT be good for me, but there is NO CHANCE of getting honesty from the aforementioned entities, I guess I might as well keep taking it.
For instance there was a thread the other day about Magnesium. Potassium was also discussed. It is WELL KNOWN that magnesium and potassium are HIGHLY EFFECTIVE in moderating (ok, fixing) blood pressure problems in humans.
Is this part of the nominal recommended preventative therapy?
We all know the answer. And that answer should tell everybody something.
Go to any grade school and note the kids standing alone and zoned out when the other kids play (very sad)
Risperdal is such a powerful drug, with some of the side effects irreversible. It’s also become a drug choice in treating vets with PTSD, which I believe is often made for the wrong reasons. Sad that there is not more oversight of the oversight.
She had turned into a zombie. There were times we would visit her and could not even rouse her.
Even the die-hards who believe doctors can do no wrong, admit Mom is a different person.
It is remarkable. These drugs are wrong, wrong, wrong.
I know of a young man who has had his growth stunted by all these drugs and now he is in prison. He's barely 5 ft tall.
Psychiatrists are quacks. They do more harm than good.
Google intravenous Vit C and see the results from huge doses.
“...Go to any grade school and note the kids standing alone and zoned out when the other kids play (very sad)...”
In medical terminology, these are chemical restrains. There is a need for the use of such drugs in some kids, but all to often, the teachers are demanding the drugging. The ‘epidemic’ of ADHD and ADD is nothing more than active, bright, bored kids acting out.
You can be sure you won’t get scurvy.
Earlier this year, Congressional investigators discovered that Dr. Joseph 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 Johnson & Johnson to generate and disseminate data that would support use of an antipsychotic drug, Risperdal, in children, a controversial target group.Failed to report $1.4 million I can see how that would slip his mind.
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