Media reports this week include the story of Larisa Arap, a Russian
human rights activist who was working on a story exposing psychiatric
abuses and was involuntarily committed for her humanitarian efforts.
Other media reports implicate the psychiatric and pharmaceutical
industries as the source for attempting to blame the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration's (FDA) black-box warnings on antidepressants for
an increase in suicide rates. Another story exposed the conflict of
interest between drug companies and a renowned medical school, and a
report ran about a Minnesota psychiatrist who has stepped down as an
advisor to the state on drugs for Medicaid (state-funded healthcare
program for low-income public) due to disclosure of funds he received
from pharma.

• The Washington Times ran an article entitled "Activist tells about
torture and captivity," about Larisa Arap, a Russian human rights
activist and researcher whose incarceration in a Russian mental
hospital made international news. She visited Washington, D.C. last
week, and The Washington Times reported, "The slight Mrs. Arap, a
human rights activist and researcher, was detained by Russian military
police in the course of a routine medical visit on July 5, less than a
month after she collaborated on an article detailing a long list of
abuses by local officials using 'punitive psychiatry' to deal with
political dissidents and local troublemakers, including childrenÂ…
Released Aug. 20 after strong international protests and an
intervention by Russia's official human rights watchdog, Mrs. Arap
said she still suffers from her 46-day stay in psychiatric wardsÂ…"
http://washingtontimes.com/article/20071016/FOREIGN
/110160036/1003

• Best Syndication ran the article, "Pharma Hand Seen Behind Alarmist
Suicide Statistics" regarding the fact that long before The New York
Times reported this month that youth suicides were up 8%% from 2003 to
2004 and experts blamed an "antidepressant deficiency," Big Pharma was
trying to plant the story. The article covers the series of articles
in scientific publications that set the stage for the final American
Journal of Psychiatry study (that has now been discredited in other
media reports) entitled "Early Evidence on the Effects of Regulators'
Suicidality Warnings on SSRI Prescriptions and Suicide in Children and
Adolescents." In her article, Martha Rosenberg exposes the financial
conflicts of interest that many of the psychiatrists who wrote the
reports had with the pharmaceutical industry. The first article in the
series was written by a consultant to Eli Lilly, and was followed by
an article written by four representatives of a private "drug
development services" company called Quintiles Transnational.
http://newsblaze.com/story/20070921070012rose.nb/
newsblaze/OPINIONS/Opinions.html

• Associated Press ran an article entitled, "Study Examines Schools'
Ties to Drug Companies" about a new study published today in the
Journal of the American Medical Association, which surveyed medical
schools' ties to drug companies. The study, by lead author Eric
Campbell, researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard
Medical School, found that 60%% of department heads reported some type
of personal financial relationship with industry and 27%% said they had
recently served as a paid consultant, while the same percentage
reported that they had served on a company scientific advisory board.
Dr. Jerome Kassirer, a former New England Journal of Medicine editor
and frequent critic of industry influence over doctors, called the
study eye-opening. "I was appalled by the results," said Dr. Kassirer,
"No one knew that so many chairs of medicine and psychiatry were paid
speakers. We've never had that data before."
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g9uL_ZqdFmybm38
isuj9mOf8KXiQD8SAHTM80

• The Post Bulletin (Minnesota) ran an Associated Press wire, "AP
NewsBreak: Psychiatrist with drug industry ties to leave panel" which
reports, "A Minnesota psychiatrist who collected hundreds of thousands
of dollars from pharmaceutical companies will quit a panel that
advises the state on drugs for low-income Medicaid patients."
Psychiatrist John E. Simon said on Wednesday that he will resign from
the panel. Recently, Senator Charles Grassley introduced federal
legislation that would require drug companies to report payments to
doctors for lectures and consulting. Currently, only a few states have
such disclosure laws.
http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/
localnews_story.asp?a=312144&z=2

• PharmaLot ran an article by Ed Silverman, entitled, "Zyprexa
Document Leaker To Speak Publicly" which states, “Jim Gottstein, an
attorney who was one of three people named as conspirators by a
federal judge in the infamous Zyprexa document scandal earlier this
year, will make a rare public appearance next Monday at Hampshire
College, a private liberal arts school in western Massachusetts.”
Whether Jim will talk about this now-infamous episode isn't clear;
he's still negotiating with Eli Lilly, which markets the
antipsychotic, in a bid to avoid court sanctions. The sponsor says he
will. A Freedom Center representative stated, "We are honored to have
Jim speak locally to reinforce what we at the Freedom Center have been
saying for years—it is not OK to force people onto psychiatric drugs
and the dangerous side effects of these drugs need to be revealed to
the public."
http://www.pharmalot.com/2007/10/zyprexa-
document-leaker-to-speak-publicly/

• KETK online ran an article entitled, "Psychiatric Hospital's License
is Suspended For Ten Days" which reports that the Texas Department of
Health Services sent the Acadia Pathways Psychiatric hospital a letter
October 11th explaining that there would be an emergency 10-day
suspension of the hospital's license. Among nearly 20 violations, the
Department of State Health Services reports: Between June 2007 and
October 1st, a facility psychiatrist physically assaulted a
sixteen-year-old patient; a nine-year-old patient sexually assaulted a
six-year-old patient; at least twenty-eight patients had injuries, and
six employees were injured. After receiving the letter, Acadia
admitted to the allegations Health Services found.
http://www.ketknbc.com/home/ticker/10584437.html

• The Boston Globe released a report about "the spectacular downfall
of a highly respected psychiatrist who had arrived at the
Harvard-affiliated hospital just a few months earlier to take on one
of the most influential jobs in mental health care." In April 2006,
Dr. Jack M. Gorman, new president of McLean Hospital in Belmont, MA,
attempted suicide. The married father of two had brought a shameful
secret with him to Massachusetts: He had engaged in a long-term sexual
relationship with a New York patient.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/
10/14/a_doctors_downfall_mcleans_fallout/

For decades, CCHR has fought to expose the dangers and fraud of the
psycho-pharmaceutical industry despite the objections of vested
interests that profit from keeping the truth concealed.

If you would like to make a donation to CCHR to assist with our public
awareness campaigns, click here: https://www.cchr.org/donate

Pat