Radio Host Has Drug Company Ties
By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: November 21, 2008
An influential psychiatrist who was the host of the popular public radio program “The Infinite Mind” earned at least .3 million from 2000 to 2007 giving marketing lectures for drugmakers, income not mentioned on the program.
The psychiatrist and radio host, Dr. Frederick K. Goodwin, is the latest in a series of doctors and researchers whose ties to drugmakers have been uncovered by Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa. Dr. Goodwin, a former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, is the first news media figure to be investigated.
Dr. Goodwin’s weekly radio programs have often touched on subjects important to the commercial interests of the companies for which he consults. In a program broadcast on Sept. 20, 2005, he warned that children with bipolar disorder who were left untreated could suffer brain damage, a controversial view.
“But as we’ll be hearing today,” Dr. Goodwin told his audience, “modern treatments — mood stabilizers in particular — have been proven both safe and effective in bipolar children.”
That same day, GlaxoSmithKline paid Dr. Goodwin ,500 to give a promotional lecture for its mood stabilizer drug, Lamictal, at the Ritz Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Fla. In all, GlaxoSmithKline paid him more than 9,000 that year for promoting Lamictal, records given to Congressional investigators show.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/22/health/22radio.html?ref=businessI think the relentless drugging of our children with these psych drugs is criminal. It's not just the doctors. Some teachers also seem to think that they are psychiatrists and actually tell parents that their child needs to be put on ritalin/adderall/zyprexa/prozac/whatever or he/she won't be able to stay in the classroom. Of course this is quite illegal, but many parents unaware of their rights and their child's rights simply march the kid off to a shrink and load him up on drugs. I was at a school board meeting a few years ago when the district psych squad gave a presentation outlining how succesful they were in getting grade-school children on psych medications. They were actually proud of the fact that an entire classroom of elementary school kids was now medicated. This was not a special-ed class either. Of course, the district gets thousands of extra dollars if a kid is labeled as emotionally/behaviourally ill... and parents don't know their rights. Amazingly, many of those same kids did just fine the next year when they were in a different classroom with a different teacher.
I have a friend who has had difficulty with parenthood - he and his wife just don't seem to 'get it.' He works fulltime, and his wife is a stay-at-home mom who's had a couple of nervous breakdowns and is mentally unstable. Every time one of the kids acts defiant or throws a tantrum (what 4 year old hasn't done that) they of course caved into his demands (thus encouraging the behavior) and eventually took the kids to a shrink to get them medicated. They had to go to 3 or 4 different shrinks to find one who would reluctantly put the kids on ritalin. The first three shrinks said the kids were fine and that the parents needed to get some help with parenting issues. I still can't believe they are medicating these kids. I think it's abuse. The kids eat nothing but crap - a typical lunch might be a juice box and a bowl of Captain Crunch, followed by "dessert" of fruit snacks, because they won't eat a regular lunch. They watch TV and play video games ALL DAY AND NIGHT, except for a few hours a day when they're at preschool or kindergarten. They have no set bedtime because the kids refuse to go to bed and the parents don't make them get in bed... they say their behavior is "part of the disease" and there's nothing they can do.
I got no use for the vast majority of school "psychologists," pediatric shrinks and the crap they push.
Interesting article. Not good at all.Jas, I'm in total agreement. I had to sit back and watch my grandson being medicated when I knew in my heart it was bad parenting and another type of medical problem. Eventually he was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome (a form of autism) and once he had more direction in his life and his parents were taught how to deal with a child with this syndrome he started to conform and life was/is easier for him. It's way too easy to just medicate. I realize some children require the meds but whole classrooms.