For the Love of Money

Mental health practitioners are hitting the headlines, caught in scandalous positions.

By Ben Campbell, Winter 2009

Senator Ted Stevens was recently convicted on seven felony counts for failing to properly report gifts worth $250,000, a breach of federal disclosure laws. Less publicized, but perhaps equally disconcerting for mental health, is the recent revelation of a number of similar indiscretions involving psychiatric researchers.

Dr. Frederick K. Goodwin, psychiatrist, former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, and popular NPR radio host on “The Infinite Mind,” was recently implicated in financial indiscretions involving undisclosed income from drugmakers. He allegedly received over $1.3 million over the past eight years for his participation in marketing lectures for drug companies and has failed to note this in his radio program. The radio show often discussed topics closely related to the interests of these companies and, in response to this revelation, will be removed from NPR’s lineup. Furthermore, “Infinite Mind” received considerable underwriting from NIH and the National Science Foundation, both of which require explicit disclosure of any conflict of interest.

In October, Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff, then chair of Emory University’s department of psychiatry and influential researcher, was identified as having received over $2.8 million from drugmakers and failing to report a large sum of this to the university. In June, it was revealed that Dr. Joseph Biederman, a Harvard psychiatrist who was highly influential in promoting the use of antipsychotics in children, failed to disclose over $1.6 million in income from drugmakers. The recent revelations are part of Senator Charles E. Grassley’s (R-Iowa) efforts to systematically identify drug companies’ conflict of interests.