Harvard Researchers Fail to Reveal Full Drug Pay

Psychiatric diagnosis and money make for an uneasy mix.

It's bad enough that psychiatrists must diagnose to be paid.

It's bad enough that psychiatrists are strongly financially rewarded for very short appointments.

It's bad enough that psychiatrists prescribe for almost everyone they see, else the patients won't return.

Thus ... a pseudo-plague of bipolars is upon us.

And ... for a Harvard eminent "bipolar expert" to be so enriched by Big Pharmacy ... casts onerous doubt upon the validity of psychiatric practice, to the detriment of those who truly suffer from true serious mental illnesses.

There's a psychiatrist who works at the Sheridan VAMC/MH in Sheridan, WY. When I reviewed clients records, I had found that this guy had diagnosed almost all of the clients with BiPolar who had to see him during the VA C&P examination. Thus, I nick named him "Dr. BiPolar."

I later found out that before going to work there in the Sheridan VAMC/MH, that he had worked for several outside clinics and forced to leave them, rather than face legal problems.

I couldn't believe how many clients who had complained to me about his mannerism. So, I conducted another psych assessment ahd had diagnosed tham appropriatelly along with having a Psych Nurse Practicianer prescribe the medications when they were warrented.

I began reading "Blowling Alone" a few days ago. It's quite interesting. Thanks again for the tip.

Cheers

Appearently Biederman makes a living at mental health scientific bullcrap to enhance his profession and profits.

Flawed St. John's Wort Study on ADHD Failed to Use Active Form of Herbal Extract
Friday, June 13, 2008 by: Mike Adams (see all articles by this author)| Key concepts: adhd, junk science and JAMA

(NaturalNews) On the heels of shocking revelations that top psychiatric research Dr. Joseph Biederman secretly took $1.6 million from drug companies while conducting psychotropic drug experiments on children, it has been learned that Dr. Biederman is now one of the key collaborators behind the latest efforts to discredit St. John's Wort. In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and widely reported in the mainstream media, Dr. Biederman and fellow cohorts "concluded" that the St. John's Wort herb is useless in treating ADHD in children.

What's astonishing about this study, as you'll learn in this article, is that all the children used in the study were given inactive forms of the St. John's Wort herb where the active ingredients had been oxidized and rendered useless! In other words, this clinical trial, which was widely reported in the mainstream media with headlines like "St. John's Wort Found Useless!" didn't test the herb's active ingredients at all! It sort of makes you wonder about the agenda of the people running the study, doesn't it?

Keep in mind that one of the study's authors, Dr. Biederman, is not merely on the take from drug companies that sell competing pharmaceuticals, but that he also lied about how much money he was being paid by drug companies, hiding the truth about his income by underreporting $1.6 million he took from psychiatric drug companies. See my report on that here: http://www.naturalnews.com/023408.html

Dr. Biederman has a clear financial interest in promoting patented prescription drugs for brain chemistry disorders while discrediting competing natural alternatives such as St. John's Wort. This blatant conflict of interest was not disclosed by JAMA, nor was it mentioned in the text of the study on ADHD and St. John's Wort. It appears Dr. Biederman would prefer his financial ties to Big Pharma continue to remain secret, even while producing questionable studies that desperately attempt to show that herbs don't work.

more:

http://www.naturalnews.com/023430.html

pragmaticus wrote:

Psychiatric diagnosis and money make for an uneasy mix.
It's bad enough that psychiatrists must diagnose to be paid.
It's bad enough that psychiatrists are strongly financially rewarded for very short appointments.
It's bad enough that psychiatrists prescribe for almost everyone they see, else the patients won't return.
Thus ... a pseudo-plague of bipolars is upon us.
And ... for a Harvard eminent "bipolar expert" to be so enriched by Big Pharmacy ... casts onerous doubt upon the validity of psychiatric practice, to the detriment of those who truly suffer from true serious mental illnesses.

I agree with some things you say. i don't agree about the psychiatrist getting paid for short visits. I paid twoo hundred dollars to an accountant to file taxes and it only too fifteen minutes. I never paid a doctor so much money for so little time. I paid a lawyer four thoudsand an hour and his hour legally was six minutes time he spent on my case. I have never paid a doctor that much for six minutes of service. I could probably long survive without lawyers and accountants but not so without medical care. I hope you capture my point.

But I have been saying on here for over two years that there was corruption in the field of psychiatry. You can go back and look for my comments going back to 05 on ADHD, Bipolar disorder, Sleep disorder etc and the drugs pushed. I have been a part of trying to get certain drugs black box warning labeled for seventeen years and finally the FDA forced a weak-as$ed, diluted version in 05 but it hit the market in 06 and 07.

I have been waiting ten years for this exposure of corruption to start reaching the public as is happening now with Beiderman and his cronies.

I got so tired of saying it on here for thrity months or so I quit coming to this site. Maybe, now some professionals in the field will sit up and take notice. But I doubt it.

After all Harvard and Yale institutions includin UC, CincinnatiU, CHigacoU and NYU and affilitaes were busted over the Neurontin corruption in 04 and nobody noticed shite.

Yada wrote:

i don't agree about the psychiatrist getting paid for short visits.

In private practice I kept a spreadsheet of CPT codes and Medicare allowables. The final calculation column was $/min. The $/min for a short visit is notably higher than the $/min for a long visit. The difference is not subtle.

The same principle applies, pretty much regardless of the third party payer.

Physicians demonstrate very human motives and blindnesses. We need to be effective critics of ourselves to maintain credibility.

My Opinion_El Paso_TX wrote:

I began reading "Blowling Alone" a few days ago. It's quite interesting. Thanks again for the tip.
Cheers

Thick reading, but important. I am intrigued by the generational cohort effect he describes and am reading now through the contribution of social isolation to rising depression and suicide rates amongst the Generation X'ers.

I'm waiting to see if he covers all the areas I've contemplated.

A long time friend of mine, now an associate professor of family medicine, did part of his training in Pt. Arthur, TX. Where he lived, in a poorer part of town, he learned from an old gentleman that which is wrong with the world:

Air conditioners and televisions.

Why?

People don't sit out on their front porches any more.

Maybe I'll find some correlations between changes in the humanity of psychiatry and the changes described in Bowling Alone.

pragmaticus wrote:

<quoted text>
Thick reading, but important. I am intrigued by the generational cohort effect he describes and am reading now through the contribution of social isolation to rising depression and suicide rates amongst the Generation X'ers.
I'm waiting to see if he covers all the areas I've contemplated.
A long time friend of mine, now an associate professor of family medicine, did part of his training in Pt. Arthur, TX. Where he lived, in a poorer part of town, he learned from an old gentleman that which is wrong with the world:
Air conditioners and televisions.
Why?
People don't sit out on their front porches any more.
Maybe I'll find some correlations between changes in the humanity of psychiatry and the changes described in Bowling Alone.

Good points and questions Pragmaticus!

There's no doubt that social isolation is a key ingredient to the rise of depression and suicide here in the US as well as in other countries.

Just look at how neighborhoods have changed for the worse in many cases. Children used to run all over them and play until Mom and Dad had to come out, yelling for them to come inside as it was dark.

Now you're lucky in seeing any kids outside playing and not very far from the home either.

My wife and I were discussing this over the weekend. Today's parents cannot allow their children to scanter off to the local play grounds all by themselves, as there are too many social dangers waiting to greet them.

And they've been replaced by the television, computer, and video games, not forgetting that these technologies have also become the new family baby sitter.

Add to the social isolation and depression the rise of individuals getting involved with alcohol and street drugs, which just adds more fuel to the fire.

Cheers

My Opinion_El Paso_TX wrote:

And they've been replaced by the television, computer, and video games, not forgetting that these technologies have also become the new family baby sitter.
Add to the social isolation and depression the rise of individuals getting involved with alcohol and street drugs, which just adds more fuel to the fire.
Cheers

Yup.

pragmaticus wrote:

<quoted text>
In private practice I kept a spreadsheet of CPT codes and Medicare allowables. The final calculation column was $/min. The $/min for a short visit is notably higher than the $/min for a long visit. The difference is not subtle.
The same principle applies, pretty much regardless of the third party payer.
Physicians demonstrate very human motives and blindnesses. We need to be effective critics of ourselves to maintain credibility.

Whether remuneration is higher or lower for more or less time is not relevant here as it has no substantial or direct bearing on the unethical behaviour of Beiderman and his cornies.

Besides, tiny remuneration is not equivalent to ethical. No. That's just called a vow of poverty. My physicians deserve to be well paid for their invaluable profession.

Human beings cannot self regulate as avarice overtakes all. Hence, the rules of disclosure of conflicts of interest and payment sources and amounts which are all legally binding.

My contention is not that Beiderman made 1.6 million from his profession. No. My outrage is that he did so unethically to push a diagnosis that doesn't exist -ADHD- and the drugs the pharmaceutical industry need to sell that they had created for something else back in the days of the last world war, despite his awareness of the lasting damage these drugs do to children and adults. Therein lieth the crux of the ethics question. He should not participate in peddling something harmful to people regardless of the monetary gain to himself.

He should be proscecuted for fraud and tax evasion by the government. He should also be ejected by the university and penalized further including excluded from the psychiatric community for damaging the credibility of the field's science.

The APA, Inc. and the ABPN, Inc. should expose him in their many journals and his certification revoked, respectively.

Hi Yada. ADD/ADHD is a real disorder no matter how you want to play it.

Cheers

Akathisia is a true motor restlessness that is related to deep brain, extrapyramidal system dysfunction, a system heavily loaded with dopamine wiring. Dopamine blockade in this system is known to cause akathisia in some, but not all people.

True ADHD is an akathisia spectrum disorder. A syndrome of overactivity and distractability was observed to evolve from the 1917 encephalitis lethargica pandemic, the same encephalitis that resulted in Parkinson's disease as described in the cinematized production "Awakenings." Resulting notions of "minimal brain dysfunction" eventually evolved into the modern ADHD nomenclature.

The extrapyramidal system is heavily connected to the frontal lobes, which are responsible, in part, for attentional capacity.

Notably, dopamine boosting medication, or removal of dopamine blocking medication lessens akathisia spectrum problems. Thus, psychostimulants are paradoxically useful for kids with true ADHD. Notably, dopamine boosting medication is also used for restless legs syndrome, another form of akathisia.

Parkinson's disease, a disorder of excessive motor tone ... is treated with dopamine, or dopamine boosting medications.

What are some of the realistic problems with ADHD and its treatment?

*---* Some clinicians are like restaurant servers *---*
"May I take your order, please?... Oh, you think Johnnie is a little hyper? You want to try Ritalin on him? Sure! Come back to see us, OK? Please pay the receptionist on your way out."

*---* Some clinicians are too busy *---*
"Johnnie's teachers are complaining? Yea, he's looking a little hyper, but I don't know if that's from that Mountain Dew he's drinking. Oh well, here, give Ritalin a try and tell me if it helps. I've got 20 patients in the waiting room and I don't really have time to think through this any further."

*---* Teachers may be desperate *---*
"You need to do something with Johnnie ... I've got 35 students, 35 sets of complaining parents, and 35 bureacratic lesson plans ... I just don't have time to deal with him. Put him on some medicine, or something."

*---* Restlessness in children is non-specific *---*
Anxiety/stress, fatigue or physical discomfort are common additional considerations. Restlessness does not at all automatically mean ADHD. Ritalin for Johnnie won't fix his stress from seeing one parent beating the other. Nor does it fix his pinworms, or his undersleeping due to parental laxity.

*---* Threshold for diagnosis *---*
- Just *how* restless does Johnnie really have to be to be pathologically restless, and in what setting?
- How much of the definition depends on the social context?
- What if he lives on a farm, where his restlessness may not be much of a problem?
- Put that same restlessness in a classroom ... and now it's an illness because a modern, new social construct called the "school classroom" has been imposed? Is it fair to label something as illness because society has changed?

*---* Available options other than medication *---*
- How involved, mature and effective are the parents?
- How much room is available for a child to run around?(Gone is the chance to send Johnnie to Uncle Bob's farm to use his energy fruitfully.)
- Are cognitive/behavioral therapy resources available, and will the family actually use them?

Great job in describing what has been happening in a real world of people Pragmaticus!!!

Cheers

My Opinion_El Paso_TX wrote:

Hi Yada. ADD/ADHD is a real disorder no matter how you want to play it.
Cheers

No.'Tisn't.'Tis a confluence of diseases and social circumstances which in ignorance was thought be one discrete entity.

pragmaticus wrote:

Akathisia is a true motor restlessness that is related to deep brain, extrapyramidal system dysfunction, a system heavily loaded with dopamine wiring. Dopamine blockade in this system is known to cause akathisia in some, but not all people.
True ADHD is an akathisia spectrum disorder. A syndrome of overactivity and distractability was observed to evolve from the 1917 encephalitis lethargica pandemic, the same encephalitis that resulted in Parkinson's disease as described in the cinematized production "Awakenings." Resulting notions of "minimal brain dysfunction" eventually evolved into the modern ADHD nomenclature.
The extrapyramidal system is heavily connected to the frontal lobes, which are responsible, in part, for attentional capacity.
Notably, dopamine boosting medication, or removal of dopamine blocking medication lessens akathisia spectrum problems. Thus, psychostimulants are paradoxically useful for kids with true ADHD. Notably, dopamine boosting medication is also used for restless legs syndrome, another form of akathisia.
Parkinson's disease, a disorder of excessive motor tone ... is treated with dopamine, or dopamine boosting medications.
What are some of the realistic problems with ADHD and its treatment?
*---* Some clinicians are like restaurant servers *---*
"May I take your order, please?... Oh, you think Johnnie is a little hyper? You want to try Ritalin on him? Sure! Come back to see us, OK? Please pay the receptionist on your way out."
*---* Some clinicians are too busy *---*
"Johnnie's teachers are complaining? Yea, he's looking a little hyper, but I don't know if that's from that Mountain Dew he's drinking. Oh well, here, give Ritalin a try and tell me if it helps. I've got 20 patients in the waiting room and I don't really have time to think through this any further."
*---* Teachers may be desperate *---*
"You need to do something with Johnnie ... I've got 35 students, 35 sets of complaining parents, and 35 bureacratic lesson plans ... I just don't have time to deal with him. Put him on some medicine, or something."
*---* Restlessness in children is non-specific *---*
Anxiety/stress, fatigue or physical discomfort are common additional considerations. Restlessness does not at all automatically mean ADHD. Ritalin for Johnnie won't fix his stress from seeing one parent beating the other. Nor does it fix his pinworms, or his undersleeping due to parental laxity.
*---* Threshold for diagnosis *---*
- Just *how* restless does Johnnie really have to be to be pathologically restless, and in what setting?
- How much of the definition depends on the social context?
- What if he lives on a farm, where his restlessness may not be much of a problem?
- Put that same restlessness in a classroom ... and now it's an illness because a modern, new social construct called the "school classroom" has been imposed? Is it fair to label something as illness because society has changed?
*---* Available options other than medication *---*
- How involved, mature and effective are the parents?
- How much room is available for a child to run around?(Gone is the chance to send Johnnie to Uncle Bob's farm to use his energy fruitfully.)
- Are cognitive/behavioral therapy resources available, and will the family actually use them?

But not only dopamine is boosted. Many other processes also occur.

Yada wrote:

<quoted text>
But not only dopamine is boosted. Many other processes also occur.

Than please explain the processes that you're referring to Yada.

Cheers

My Opinion_El Paso_TX wrote:

<quoted text>
Than please explain the processes that you're referring to Yada.
Cheers

Neurotransmitter Transporters activity are changed along with increases of norepinephrine and dopamine at the synaptic clefts. IntraCellular skeletal proteins are changed also. Cell membrane potential are disrupted in the long run.

Also the drugs faultily turn back on master genes for differentiation and proliferation which were to be on in earlier stages of brain maturation which disorganizes the brain further.

People develop psychoses, sleep disruption, impulsive and erratic behaviour, mania, hostility, changes in sexual orientation and practices, suicicality and homicidality, misery and agitated anxiety. People can have cardiac arrhythmia, heart attacks, strokes and sudden cardiac death.

Besides all that, the drugs are highly addictive and people develop dependence on them. That dependence is seen as benefit. For as long as they get the drugs they will say they feel better. When taken away, withdrawal symptoms occur just like addicts on methamphetamine and cocaine.

Not all the drugs are addictive and everone doesn't become dependent on them. Otherwise we wouldn't be having the problem where people often quit taking their meds in the first place.

I haven't seen where medications have caused peoples sexual identity to change.

Cheers

My Opinion_El Paso_TX wrote:

Not all the drugs are addictive and everone doesn't become dependent on them. Otherwise we wouldn't be having the problem where people often quit taking their meds in the first place.
I haven't seen where medications have caused peoples sexual identity to change.
Cheers

Are you an idiot! Who said anything about all drugs? I was talking about a particular class of drugs which I named. Most of the children and adults who take the class I talked about do not often quit those. They quit other kinds of drugs more than those. The drugs of addiction that are sold by prescription drugs are more likely to be overused rather than quit.

Look I don't think you have enough background to make discussion with you worthwhile Thanks for you comments. Bye.