NYT: Child psychiatrist is himself a psychopath

[Mort Zuckerman]

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Subject: NYT: Child psychiatrist is himself a psychopath

Date: Nov 24, 2008 8:41 PM

See? Whadduh tellya. They're *all* manipulative *liars.*
Even the head of NIMH.

If this guy could go this far as to lie to everyone and
then threaten J&J to the point where the whole company was
afraid of him... it isn't likely I am exaggerating about
Yale's James Phillips:
http://www.actionlyme.org/andersonpenisbiter.htm
http://www.actionlyme.org/PHILLIPS_JE_PERVERT.htm
http://www.actionlyme.org/PENISBITERDOCS.htm

And the same is true about all the other Yale perjurers, child
abusers (Patricia Leebens, Robert Schoen, Eugene Shapiro,
Durland Fish, etc), and False-Claiming cheats.

The USDOJ does nothing about this, even though it is
crime and harm to children ... EVER ... even though it is
their job to break up criminal, false claiming, criminal
enterprises, where force or "coercion" (deprivation of
rights) is used against the victims of the RICO.

DUUUUuuuuhhh.
So much for White people being intellectually
superior to Blacks.

Kathleen M. Dickson
http://www.actionlyme.org
http://www.relapsingfever.org
===========

**** Mr. Bruins wrote that Dr. Biederman was furious after Johnson &
Johnson
rejected a request that Dr. Biederman had made to receive a $280,000
research grant.
“I have never seen someone so angry,” Mr. Bruins wrote. “Since that
time, our business
became non-existant (sic) within his area of control.”

Mr. Bruins concluded that, unless Dr. Biederman received a check soon,
“I am truly
afraid of the consequences.” ****

======================================================

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/health/25psych.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print
The New York Times
Printer Friendly Format Sponsored By

November 25, 2008
Research Center Tied to Drug Company
By GARDINER HARRIS

When a Congressional investigation revealed in June that he had earned
far more
money from drug makers than he had reported to his university, Dr.
Joseph Biederman,
a world-renowned child psychiatrist, said that his “interests are
solely in the
advancement of medical treatment through rigorous and objective
study.”

But e-mails and internal documents from Johnson & Johnson made public
in a court
filing reveal that Dr. Biederman pushed the company to fund a research
center at
Massachusetts General Hospital whose goal was “to move forward the
commercial goals
of J&J,” the documents state. The documents also show that Johnson &
Johnson
wrote a draft summary of a study that Dr. Biederman, of Harvard
University, was
said to author.

Dr. Biederman’s work helped to fuel a 40-fold increase from 1994 to
2003 in the
diagnosis of pediatric bipolar disorder and a rapid rise in the use of
powerful,
risky and expensive antipsychotic medicines in children. Although many
of his studies
are small and often financed by drug makers, Dr. Biederman has had a
vast influence
on the field largely because of his position at one of the most
prestigious medical
institutions in the world.

Johnson & Johnson manufactures Risperdal, also known as risperidone, a
popular
antipsychotic medicine. More than a quarter of Risperdal’s use is in
children and
adolescents.

Last week, a panel of federal drug experts said that medicines like
Risperdal are
being used far too cavalierly in children and that federal drug
regulators must
do more to warn doctors of their substantial risks. Other popular
antipsychotic
medicines, also referred to as neuroleptics, are Zyprexa, made by Eli
Lilly; Seroquel,
made by AstraZeneca; Geodon, made by Pfizer; and Abilify, made by
Bristol-Myers
Squibb.

Thousands of parents have sued Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and Eli
Lilly,
claiming that their children were injured after taking the medicines,
whose risks
the companies minimized, the parents claim. As part of the suits,
plaintiffs’ attorneys
have demanded millions of documents from the companies. Nearly all of
those documents
have been provided under judicial seals, but a select few that
mentioned Dr. Biederman
became public after plaintiffs attorneys sought a judge’s order to
require Dr. Biederman
to be interviewed by plaintiff attorneys under oath.

In a motion filed two weeks ago, attorneys for the families argued
that they should
be allowed to interview Dr. Biederman under oath because his work has
been crucial
to the widespread acceptance of pediatric uses of antipsychotic
medicines. To support
this contention, the lawyers included more than two dozen documents,
including e-mails
from Johnson & Johnson that mentioned Dr. Biederman. That interview
request
has yet to be ruled upon.

The documents offer an unusual glimpse into the delicate relationship
that drug
makers have with influential doctors. In one November 1999 e-mail,
John Bruins,
a Johnson & Johnson marketing executive, begs his supervisors to
approve a $3,000
check to Dr. Biederman in payment for a lecture he gave at the
University of Connecticut.

“Dr. Biederman is not someone to jerk around,” Mr. Bruins wrote. “He
is a very proud
national figure in child psych and has a very short fuse.”

**** Mr. Bruins wrote that Dr. Biederman was furious after Johnson &
Johnson
rejected a request that Dr. Biederman had made to receive a $280,000
research grant.
“I have never seen someone so angry,” Mr. Bruins wrote. “Since that
time, our business
became non-existant (sic) within his area of control.”

Mr. Bruins concluded that, unless Dr. Biederman received a check soon,
“I am truly
afraid of the consequences.” ****

A series of documents described the goals behind establishing the
Johnson &
Johnson Center for the study of pediatric psychopathology, for which
Dr. Biederman
still serves as chief.

A 2002 annual report for the center stated that its research must
satisfy three
criteria: improve psychiatric care for children, have high standards
and “move forward
the commercial goals of J&J,” according to court documents.

“We strongly believe that the center’s systematic scientific inquiry
will enhance
the clinical and research foundation of child psychiatry and lead to
the safer,
more appropriate and more widespread use of medications in children,”
the report
stated. “Without such data, many clinicians question the wisdom of
aggressively
treating children with medications, especially those like
neuroleptics, which expose
children to potentially serious adverse events.”

A February 2002 e-mail from Georges Gharabawi, a Johnson & Johnson
executive,
stated that Dr. Biederman approached the company “multiple times to
propose the
creation” of the center. “The rationale of this center is to generate
and disseminate
data supporting the use of risperidone in” children and adolescents,
the e-mail
stated.

Johnson & Johnson gave the center $700,000 in 2002 alone, documents
show.

A June 2002 e-mail from Dr. Gahan Pandina, a Johnson & Johnson
executive, to
Dr. Biederman included a brief abstract of a study of Risperdal in
children suffering
disruptive behavior disorder. The study was intended to be presented
at the 2002
annual meeting of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent
Psychiatry, the
e-mail stated.

“We have generated a review abstract, but I must review this longer
abstract before
passing this along,” Dr. Pandina wrote. One problem with the study,
Dr. Pandina
wrote, is that the children given placebos and those given Risperdal
both improved
significantly, “so, if you could, please give some thought to how to
handle this
issue if it occurs.”

The draft abstract that Dr. Pandina included in the e-mail, however,
stated that
only the children given Risperdal improved, while those given placebos
did not.
Dr. Pandina asked Dr. Biederman to sign a form listing himself as
author so the
company could present the study to the conference, according to the e-
mail.

“I will review this morning,” Dr. Biederman responded, according to
the documents.
“I will be happy to sign the forms if you could kindly send them to
me.” The documents
do not make clear whether Dr. Biederman approved the final summary of
the brief
abstract in similar form or asked to read the longer report on the
study.

Drug makers have long hired professional writers to compose scientific
papers and
then recruited well-known doctors to list themselves as authors. The
practice, known
as ghostwriting, has come under intense criticism recently, and
medical societies,
schools and journals have condemned it.

In June, a Congressional investigation revealed that Dr. Biederman had
failed to
report to Harvard at least $1.4 million in outside income from Johnson
& Johnson
and other makers of antipsychotic medicines.

In one example, Dr. Biederman reported no income from Johnson &
Johnson for
2001 in a disclosure report filed with the university. When asked by
Senator Charles
E. Grassley, a Republican of Iowa, to check again, Dr. Biederman said
he received
$3,500. But Johnson & Johnson told Mr. Grassley that it paid Dr.
Biederman $58,169
in 2001.

On Monday, David J. Cameron, a Harvard spokesman, said the university
was still
reviewing Mr. Grassley’s allegations against Dr. Biederman. He added
that they had
not seen the drug company documents in question and that the
university is not directly
involved in the child psychiatry center at Massachusetts General
Hospital.

Calls to Dr. Biederman were not returned. Johnson & Johnson did not
immediately
comment or make executives available for comment.

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