Psychiatrist Scolds the APA After Winning Distinguished Fellow Award/ NYC Sues 4

[Guest guest]

> SSRI-Research

> Sat, 07 Aug 2004 00:46:38 -0000

> [sSRI-Research] Psychiatrist Scolds the APA

> After Winning Distinguished Fellow Award/ NYC Sues 4

>

>

> ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION (AHRP)

> Promoting openness and full disclosure

> http://www.ahrp.org

>

> FYI

>

> After receiving a 50-year " distinguished fellow

> award " from the

> American Psychiatric Association in May, 2004, Alex

> Braiman, M.D. a

> practicing psychiatrist, wrote a letter

> acknowledging that the

> APA's " advocacy of unsupported " biologic " diagnostic

> and treatment

> practices corrode its efficacy and leadership. "

>

> Furthermore, Dr. Braiman wrote:

>

> " It is ironic that we are witnessing serious

> challenges to the

> scientific integrity of studies supporting the FDA

> approval of the

> SSRI class of antidepressants at a time when an

> unsilent majority of

> us go along with the pretense that this is

> evidence-based psychiatry. "

>

> Dr. Braiman is echoing Dr. Loren Mosher's letter of

> resignation from

> the APA in 1998.

>

> Dr. Mosher fought for truth in psychiatry until his

> untimely death.

> In his letter he criticized APA's " neurobiological

> tunnel vision " and

> deplored the " marriage of convenience between APA,

> NAMI and the drug

> companies (who gleefully support both groups because

> of their shared

> pro-drug stance) " See:

> http://members.tripod.com/repeal_51/id28.html

>

> The media needs to pay close attention and examine

> the arguments made

> by the much maligned, but cogent critics of

> psychiatry. As Drs.

> Mosher and Braiman acknowledged: psychiatry's claims

> about " chemical

> imbalances " and its reliance on ineffective, even

> hazardous drugs are

> anything but science-based. Psychiatry's practice

> guidelines were

> written by psychiatrists contracted by drug

> manufacturers who are now

> being sued for fraudulent marketing and concealment

> of evidence that

> their drugs harm children.

>

> As Dr. Braiman acknowledges, the Big Lie has been

> perpetrated, not

> just by Big Pharma, but by leading opinion shapers

> in psychiatry--all

> of whom are paid by drug manufacturers.

>

> The media has also disseminated " one trick " false

> information about

> both the number of people afflicted with untreated

> mental illness,

> and the safety and effectiveness of antidepressants

> and the rest of

> psychotropic drugs. Such information was presented

> as scientific

> findings, but was only draped in pseudo-scientific

> copy. The purpose

> of almost all medical news reports was to promote

> the sale of

> drugs.

>

> The media owes the public overdue truth telling as

> well--inasmuch as

> most of the American public get their information

> about medicine and

> health from the media. An investigative reporter

> could cull together

> 5-10 year's worth of " mental health news reports "

> and track their

> effect: the numbers of children prescribed

> psychotropic drugs has

> risen to astronomical highs--despite lack of

> evidence that the drugs

> are of any benefit to them. However, there is no

> doubt about who

> benefits from the skyrocketing psychotropic drug

> expenditure.

> See, for example, the escalated psychotropic drug

> expenditures under

> Florida's implementation of TMAP (the Texas

> Medicines Algorithm

> Program), the drug industry's favorite mental health

> guidelines

>

http://www.fdhc.state.fl.us/Medicaid/deputy_secretary/recent_presentat

> ions/mental_health_options_021004.pdf

>

> Reuters reports that New York City has filed a

> lawsuit against 44

> pharmaceutical companies for Medicaid fraud. Similar

> complaints have

> been filed by several U.S. states, including Ohio,

> Texas and Montana,

> which accused big drugmakers of defrauding their

> Medicaid programs by

> inflating drug prices.

>

> Medicaid is the federal health insurance program for

> 44 million needy

> people in the United States. The city is seeking to

> recover its 25-

> percent share of Medicaid payments made on behalf of

> New York City

> residents, as well as triple damages from each

> company for the

> overcharges. See: Reuters. NYC sues 44 drug

> companies alleging

> Medicaid fraud. Thursday August 5, 2:57 pm ET

>

http://biz./rc/040805/economy_newyork_medicaid_1.html?

> printer=1

>

> The investigation by NYS Attorney General, Eliot

> Spitzer, is not

> limited to financial fraud by drug companies--it

> focuses on

> fraudulent based practice. This suit will,

> undoubtedly, leave few

> dark and secure spaces for the psychiatric drug

> industry to hide in.

>

>

> Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav

> Tel: 212-595-8974

> e-mail: veracare

>

>

>

>

http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/39/15/39-b

>

> Psychiatric News August 6, 2004

> Volume 39 Number 15 p. 39

> C 2004 American Psychiatric Association

> Letters to the Editor

>

> One-Trick Training?

>

> Alex Braiman, M.D.

> Farmington, N.M.

>

> After I received my 50-year distinguished fellow

> award at APA's 2004

> annual meeting in May, there was time for thought on

> the flight back

> to New Mexico and my practice. APA has become a

> polarized

> organization, perhaps a reflection of the larger

> society, but it has

> tilted too far toward the advocacy of unsupported

> " biologic "

> diagnostic and treatment practices that corrode its

> efficacy and

> leadership.

>

> We have trained a generation of psychiatrists who

> are " one-trick

> ponies, " with no arrows in their quiver after

> pharmacy and " rational

> polypharmacy " fail their patients. Perhaps that is

> why we are so

> threatened now that New Mexico and Louisiana have

> granted

> prescription privileges to psychologists.

>

> It is ironic that we are witnessing serious

> challenges to the

> scientific integrity of studies supporting the FDA

> approval of the

> SSRI class of antidepressants at a time when an

> unsilent majority of

> us go along with the pretense that this is

> evidence-based psychiatry.

> The editors of Lancet wrote in the April 4 issue

> that " selective

> reporting of favourable research should be

> unimaginable. "

>

> It is too easy to fault the drug companies. There

> are too many of us

> whose integrity has been compromised by grant

> support or honoraria

> for the rest of us to be able to trust their advice.

> The late George

> Engel, M.D., whom many of us consider the primary

> advocate of the

> biopsychosocial approach, would consider current

> statements about

> neuro-bio-chemical-genetic causality of mental

> disorders regressive.

>

> I consider myself fortunate to be able to continue

> to practice

> psychiatry now that I am retired from teaching and

> lucky that I

> received my award before the name of APA changes,

> perhaps to the

> American Bipolar Association.

>

> ~~~~~~~~