Dueling Psychiatrists: David Shaffer, MD, vs, Peter Jensen, MD
Twittering One
October 25, 2007
Psychiatrist Sues Columbia After Being Terminated
By BENEDICT CAREY
The two prominent psychiatrists clashed frequently over small details
and big money, over research priorities and ethics, and in the end
Columbia University's child psychiatry department was not big enough
to hold both of them, colleagues said.
Now, one psychiatrist is suing the university for wrongful termination
and charging that the other engineered his ouster in a Machiavellian
plot that went on for years.
In the suit, filed last week in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, Dr.
Peter Jensen, formerly the director of the Ruane Center for the
Advancement of Children's Mental Health at Columbia, contends that
after he was hired by the university in 1999, Dr. David Shaffer,
director of the university's child psychiatry division, continually
undermined his work. By making derogatory comments and subjecting Dr.
Jensen's work to unfair scrutiny, the lawsuit says, Dr. Shaffer helped
force Dr. Jensen out of his job.
Dr. Jensen - who said that, among other things, Dr. Shaffer had called
him "the Brad Pitt of psychiatry" - is seeking about $15 million in
damages from the university.
Dr. Jensen's employment ended in June, after board members voted not
to renew his contract. He charges in the suit that the move was
improper. The filing of the lawsuit was reported on Wednesday in The
New York Sun.
Columbia officials refused to comment on the case, as did Dr.
Shaffer.
The two men differed sharply in their professional goals and personal
styles, according to several people who had been colleagues of both
but who would not comment on the record because of the lawsuit. Dr.
Shaffer, a renowned expert on suicide among children and adolescents,
is considered restrained and scholarly by nature, and he focuses
primarily on the study of biochemical causes of psychological
problems, mainly depression.
Dr. Jensen is, by his own admission, outspoken, a media favorite, and
interested more in bringing psychiatric care to community settings
than in basic research. He is best known for his work on attention
deficit disorder.
"I don't know what the details are, but I can say that these are two
very strong-willed people," said William E. Pelham, director of the
Center for Children and Families at the University of Buffalo.
Beyond personalities and specialties, the case revolves in part around
charges of ethics violations against Dr. Jensen.
In academic settings, researchers are subject to institutional review
boards, which are responsible for ensuring that studies use proper
consent procedures and do not endanger patients. Beginning in 2005,
according to the suit, officials at the Research Foundation for Mental
Health, an independent review board that monitors research grants in
the state, identified several violations in Dr. Jensen's research.
In an interview yesterday, Dr. Jensen would not specify what the
violations were. He said that the university had approved other
studies, with similar methods, without finding ethics problems.
"Academic researchers know, and many have seen this kind of thing
before - when a university wants to push someone out, it encourages
the person to leave by making life there miserable," Dr. Jensen said.
The projects that Dr. Jensen has worked on include efforts to
encourage community doctors to follow guidelines for treating
childhood mental disorders like depression. In studies like these,
academic researchers track patients' progress indirectly, typically
without knowing their names. Ethics guidelines, which can vary from
institution to institution, often require researchers to get consent
before publishing any information on these patients, even if no one is
named.
Dr. Jensen and Dr. Shaffer were continually at odds over research,
according to colleagues. One of Dr. Shaffer's projects is TeenScreen,
a standardized questionnaire meant to assess potential suicide risk in
adolescents. The voluntary screening, which has been used by more than
400 schools, is controversial among many parents and patient
advocates, who say it can stigmatize youngsters who are struggling but
are not mentally ill or at risk of suicide. Dr. Jensen said that he
was less eager to promote TeenScreen than Dr. Shaffer, and that this
created tension as well.
(more)
Twittering One
youth.
Twittering One
Is just as potentially lethal as growing up gay
& being rejected by your family ~
Both issues contribute to a cumulative
SUMMATION INDEX of risk load
Which is BOTH environmental
& eventually, biochemical.
It is a Spectrum of risk vulnerability
Which is either strengthened or threatened ...
Post Mortem serotonin studies
Chart the End of the Line,
Not the train wreck in progress.
Serotonin levels, at least in monkies,
Are correlated with social status, and flexible."
~ Twittering LSTOO & Folly IAG
Twittering One
"American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is organizing a two-day
conference of invited experts to assess the current state of knowledge
and develop a consensus statement with recommendations to guide future
research, treatment, education/awareness activities and suicide
prevention interventions related to GLBT populations. The conference
is scheduled for Nov. 8-9, in Chicago, and will be cosponsored by the
Gay and Lesbian Medical Association and the Suicide Prevention
Resource Center."
http://www.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_id=6FB9BA00-7E90-9BD4-C33BD398EAAE73C0
Meanwhile, I am very tired, cold, and sad, with chronic pain for
almost 2 years without remission. And that is not funny.
Twittering One
My backpack was stollen 2 weeks ago, and it had my Address Book of 10
years, with all your addresses, email, and telephone contact
information.
But Jerome [aka, they fellow who used to tote his bible everywhere]
found me the other day, and he looked happy ~ !
indomitable2
"Twittering One" <mourne...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1193321401....@o3g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
It's about time humane, ethical mental health professionals began standing
up to their narcissistic, psychopathic and unethical mental health
professionals!
Regards
Linda
Twittering One
Twittering One
& hammer-fisted arms ~ !"
~ Twittering
Linda
> "Quibbles & Qualms
> & hammer-fisted arms ~ !"
I'd love to read the plaintiff's petition.
I think it would be interesting for me to see how a victimized
psychiatrist goes about explaining the "moves" of the psychopathic
zero sum game the accused psychiatrist engaged in to sink the
victimized psychiatrist.
mrhelp...@gmail.com
wrote:
> "Twittering One" <mournenwo...@aol.com> wrote in message
Nobody cares, whackjob