POGO Tells APA "We STILL Ain't Buying It!"

2 Psychiatric KOLs - Charles Nemeroff and Alan Schatzberg - have their names attached to a textbook which attracted the Project On Government Oversight's attention, as their level of involvement in the book's scripting opened an ugly can of Ghost Writers. See backstory here & here.

The PLoS also has a Very distressing look into the commercialization/corruption of Academic Medical Research by Dr. Rent a Names.

Ghostwriting At Elite Academic Medical Centers In The United States

the Project On Government Oversight has delivered the following letter;

http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/letter-to-apa-20110128.html (complete letter link at page bottom)

28 January 2011

Carolyn B. Robinowitz

Interim Editor,

Psychiatric News

Letter to Editor

Text’s Provenance Remains in Dispute

Writing for the American Psychiatric Association (APA), Mark Moran claimed “APPI Documents Refute Claims About Text’s Authorship” (Psychiatric News 21 January 2011; Vol 46/2, p.1). The nominal authors of the book (Recognition and Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders: A Psychopharmacology Handbook for Primary Care) are Charles Nemeroff and Alan Schatzberg. We remain unconvinced of their authorship, for the following reasons. Mr. Moran quoted another APA spokesperson, Mr. Ron McMillen, to the effect that Drs. Nemeroff and Schatzberg were actively involved “in every stage of the book’s development.” Note, however, that he did not venture to say they wrote the initial drafts – or indeed any drafts.

The released 49-page sample chapter draft provided by Diane Coniglio and Sally Laden, employees of Scientific Therapeutics Information, Inc (STI), is largely reproduced verbatim in the Handbook. That there are drafts with the nominal authors’ margin notes does not establish who actually wrote the Handbook. It is standard procedure for the ghostwriting company, Scientific Therapeutics Information (STI), to provide initial drafts that are reviewed by the contracting corporation (here, SmithKlineBeecham, now GlaxoSmithKline - GSK) before being released to the nominal authors.

STI is a commercial service entity, not a scientific institute. Their stated mission is to maximize credibility for their clients’ products. It is, therefore, no surprise that efforts to reach STI by Psychiatric News were not successful. The APA’s spokespersons, Dr. James Scully and Mr. Ron McMillen, quoted in Mr. Moran’s article, have reached premature closure based on limited evidence. To bring into full view the most significant evidence for this debate would require dedesignation of numerous confidential documents from both GSK and STI, as part of Paxil litigation. GSK, however, regularly invokes the Trade Secrets Act to ensure that the documents remain confidential and that their key opinion leaders are protected from exposure.

Finally, we take issue with the claim in Mr. Moran’s article that Drs. Nemeroff and Schatzberg “were not remunerated by GSK for any of this work.” Note that there is no mention of any indirect payments they may have received through the “unrestricted educational grant” to STI. Such arrangements are quite common.

We call on the APA/APPI to release all the key documents. The contract between STI and GSK will reveal how much influence GSK had on the content and tone of the book, and the role of GSK in approving drafts. Correspondence between Drs. Nemeroff and Schatzberg and STI will make it clear whether they followed the contract. Transparency also requires release of any GSK marketing/ business plans for the Handbook; the legal release form transferring ownership from GSK to the ‘authors’ and APPI; marketing activities of GSK sales representatives detailing the Handbook; and correspondence among all parties regarding the “unrestricted” educational grant.

This case highlights the need for disclosure if we ever are to understand the scale of corporate influence on academic publishing. We look forward to Congressional action to require the release of these documents.

Bernard Carroll, M.B., Ph.D.
Professor and Chairman Emeritus
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, NC 27710
E-mail bcarroll@duke.edu or bcarroll@redshift.com
Telephone 831-626-1467

Robert T. Rubin, M.D., Ph.D. * Dr. Rubin is corresponding author.*
Distinguished Professor and Vice Chair
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90073
Distinguished Life Fellow
American Psychiatric Association
E-mail robert.rubin@va.gov
Telephone 310-268-3319

Leemon B. McHenry, Ph.D.
Department of Philosophy
California State University, Northridge
Northridge, CA 91330-8253
E-mail leemon.mchenry@csun.edu

Dr Bernard Carroll has further thoughts on the matter at:

Health Care Renewal, WHO YOU GONNA BELIEVE?

as does Allison Bass: Government Oversight Agency Calls On NIH To Ban Ghostwriting

and 1 Boring Old Man: When Charlie Met Sally

and Ed Silverman: American Psychiatric Association And Ghostwriting

Our take remains that Trade Association Denials, Ghost Writers, Drug Company payments - disclosed or not - Psychiatry has never cured Jack and Is never Going to cure Jack because it cannot biologically prove that Jack even exists.

The money this disability peddling gibberish is soaking us for is a large part of Why we Finally got sucker punched into surrendering another 6th of our economy to collectivist politicians. America is drowning in a sea of Therapeutic Incompetents who have Nothing to sell but Labels and Brain Eating Drugs.

Unless we stop Lobotomizing ourselves with Psychiatry's noxious drugs, asinine theories, and even more asinine denials, we, meaning Western Civ, will cease to exist. We will expire in a liquifaction of collectivist gullible.

Risperdal won FDA approval on Dec 29 1993 and None of the Seance Scientists pushing it realized that the stuff was causing Diabetes, ..... even AFTER they received a false and misleading Dear Healthcare Provider Letter (see here) from the manufacturer addressing Exactly that issue a decade later in 2003.

It never occurred to these characters to ask Why they got that silly letter after they'd been selling Risperdal and Watching what it did to people, ..... for 10 years.

How intentionally blinkered do you have to be, as a State Licensed Physician, to miss something like Diabetes, ..... when it's Risperdal's 2nd most often FDA Reported Adverse Reaction out of 1,935 of them?