Radio Host Has Drug Company Ties

[MannyGoldstein]

Source: The NY Times

An influential psychiatrist who served as the host of public radio’s popular “The Infinite Mind” program earned at least $1.3 million between 2000 and 2007 giving marketing lectures for drug makers, income not mentioned on the program.

...

Dr. Goodwin’s 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, Dr. Goodwin warned that children with bipolar disorder who are left untreated could suffer brain damage, a controversial view. “But as we’ll be hearing today,” Dr. Goodwin reassured his audience, “modern treatments — mood stabilizers in particular — have been proven both safe and effective in bipolar children.”

That very day, GlaxoSmithKline paid Dr. Goodwin $2,500 to give a promotional lecture for its mood stabilizer drug, Lamictal, at the Ritz Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Fla. Indeed, Glaxo paid Dr. Goodwin more than $329,000 that year for promoting Lamictal, records given Congressional investigators show.

...

Margaret Low Smith, vice president of National Public Radio, said that N.P.R. will remove “The Infinite Mind” from its satellite radio service next week, the earliest possible date. Ms. Smith said that had N.P.R. been aware of Dr. Goodwin’s financial interests, it would not have aired the program.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/22/health/22radio.html?_r=1&hp

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This is very, very disturbing. Absolutely disgusting. Hopefully this was a violation of his agreement with NPR, and they can go after him for something.

[Billy Burnett]

1. Maybe NPR will replace him with Armstrong Williams. eol

[sun zoom spark]

13. "Infinite Mind" suddenly dropped from my Atlanta NPR station a month ago ...

... and replaced with APR's "The Splendid Table." I wondered why -- WABE-FM 90.1 had just moved "Infinite Mind" to the new time slot three months earlier: Saturday 7 am. I certainly hope there won't be a Perdue-poultry-pushing scandal involving Lynne Kaspar revealed on Thanksgiving ...

[deadmessengers]

2. well that certainly sucks.

I loved that show. :(

[KoKo]

3. Um...and NPR couldn't have checked out Goodwin's ties to Pharma on their own?

I hope someone does a check on CNN's Dr. Gupta, soon.

[peacetalksforall]

4. I don't believe NPR. Something changed at NPR when Jesse Helms,

Dan Burton, and fire head haters of NPR sounded the cry to stop government funding of NPR.

Think about it - public radio being denied funding from public governement.

Except we all know that Republicans are about privatization.

So NPR morphs to a point that I can't listen to them anymore for anything that is news delivery or political talk and opinion. They are far to the right of center. Neil Cohen (sp?), Moire Liasson, Juan Wlliams, Cokie Roberts, to name a few. I only listen to one program in the evening, BBC sometimes, and the weekend shows which are exceptional.

This person taking money and promoting the company he takes money from may or may not be the only one. What it provides for me - prrof that something went down about the time of the Jesse Helms and right wing attack. NPR agreed to something. No compalints from the right radicals were heard from again. And that is a betrayal of the public, the people.

The next step is to know whether this guy gave a portion of his 1.x million to the Republican Party. This is why I say that.

[RufusTFirefly]

7. I agree with you about NPR's rightward shift.

And yet the myth persists that they are somehow liberal.

Ever since the Gingrich era they've been moving rapidly right. The reason isn't too difficult to guess. Congress starved them of funding, threatening to cut it off completely. Now they're largely dependent on corporate money and with very few exceptions parrot the corporate perspective. Another item the GOP can cross off its to-do list. Mission accomplished.

[Deep13]

5. This may be a breach of his contract terms...

...but beyond that I don't see what the big deal is. It's not like he was giving medical diagnosis or treatment from the radio.

[MannyGoldstein]

6. You Don't See A Substantial Conflict Of Interest?

Discussing the alleged critical importance of mood-stabilizing drugs for children, when he's getting paid > $1 million as a "consultant" for said drugs?

[Deep13]

8. Only if he were treating them.

As it is, it's just radio show.

[pjt7]

9. Can we start a new national holiday

in america, where NOBODY takes a prescription drug for 1 day?

[Deep13]

10. And the real objection raises its ugly head.

If I were to do that, I would have a hard time breathing, sleeping and my anxiety would be uncontrolled. Disease is the problem, not the remedies.

[maseman]

14. Great idea. I'll be dead without some insulin.

[jmowreader]

11. It's more an unannounced infomercial for said drugs

Doctors HATE consumer advertising of prescription drugs. You know, the ones where they tell the public to "ask your doctor if Urdixadrupen (sildafenal citrate) is right for you." They've found it leads to doctor shopping--not to get mass quantities of controlled substances like Pigboy was doing, but to find a doctor who'd write them one script for Urdixadrupen regardless of its rightness for them.

This man was taking payments from drug companies that make drugs used to treat mental conditions, then doing a show on public radio that essentially amounted to an infomercial for these drugs.

[Deep13]

12. I see your point there.

NPR is supposed to be free from commercial bias.

[Celebration]

15. Amen

This is far worse than a paid commercial or infomercial, because at least people realize when something is a commercial.

[specimenfred1984]

19. Sounds like something's wrong with your brain

You should try some of the drugs I'm being paid millions to represent.

[Deep13]

21. Well, it's psychiatric not neurological.

I comes from being raised by a bipolar mother and drunken maniac of a step-father.

And having an incentive to sell something does not make the vendor wrong. Despite the way they are marketed (I say "despite" because I do not approve of it), psychiatric medical has provided relief to millions of people who previously drank themselves to death, ended up in prison and divorce court, who killed themselves or were just never happy.

[dysfunctional press]

16. okay- how many people, when you read the subject line, first thought of junkie rash limpballs?

i know i did.

[customerserviceguy]

18. You beat me to it!

Yeah, I was going there, too!

[diamidue]

20. NO, I thought of Michael Savage.

He's always dispensing health advice & has written books on the subject. No, I don't listen to him. My crazy relatives do.

[wogget]

17. I've been on Lamictal and it sent me to the emergency room

In my case it was prescribed for epilepsy and while it stopped the seizures, it also induces what my neurologist called psychotic episodes that sent me to the e-room on one occasion. It gave me a glimpse of the horror that is mental illness having never experiences anything like that up to that point or since. My neurologist was skeptical that it was the drug at first since there was no other literature on reactions like that. Similar reactions have since come to light and I've found different drugs that work.

I'm just saying these are powerful drugs. It's kind of scary having journalists advocating their use on children while simultaneously taking money from the makers.

[Crunchy Frog]

22. I was on Lamictal for depression, and it had some very scary side effects.

I had memory problems that made me feel like I had early onset Alzheimer's, and I started getting panic attacks for the first time since I was a teenager. I also got some bizzare musculoskeletal effects which included muscle twitches that made my legs and feet feel like they were full of squiggling worms, and extreme pain in my heels and some of my joints.

It is definitely not a drug to be administered lightly, especially to children, I would think.

[PfcHammer]

23. More like infinite pockets.

Adios mofo