For those who try to keep track of Charles Nemeroff, the controversial psychiatry professor, here he is making a very different kind of pitch than the sort that once made him the focus of a US Senate committee probe into the financial relationships between academics and the pharmaceutical industry.
For those who may not recall, Nemeroff was an Emory University professor who was sanctioned for failing to disclose that he had accepted about $500,000 in payments from GlaxoSmithKline while he was also the primary investigator for a National Institutes of Health study of the Paxil antidepressant, which is sold by the drugmaker (see here). The payments were made for such things as speaking engagements, where he pitched doctors, not baseballs (read this).
At issue was the extent to which such relationships may unduly influence medical research and practice. The senate probe reached out like an octopus and ensnared various drugmakers, universities, medical journals and the NIH itself, specifically the National Institutes of Mental Health (see this). Since then, various companies and institutions have gradually adopted new policies concerning disclosure.
As for Nemeroff, he now chairs the psychiatry department at the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami, which is how he found himself on the Florida Miami Marlins mound for the big wind-up. What is the connection? The University of Miami Health System is the official sports medicine provider for the team (here is the official statement about the official first pitch).
Nemeroff, however, continues to attract scrutiny. US Senator Chuck Grassley has asked the National Institutes of Health to justify a $2 million research grant recently awarded to Nemeroff, given that he remains under investigation by the US Department of Health & Human Services Office of the Inspector General, which is working with the US Department of Justice. As noted previously, the OIG investigation was completed, but there is no word on whether the DOJ will take any action before releasing the OIG report (see this).
And earlier this year, a group of academics launched a petition in hopes of persuading the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, which is devoted to combating anxiety, depression and stress-related disorders, to remove Nemeroff from its board (back story). The effort, however, appears to have failed in so far as that he remains listed among the current board members (see here).
8 Comments
"Now pitching for the Marlins, Charlie Nemeroff, known to be a screwball artist extraordinaire."
Note that "controversial" relates to issues in which rational people may hold substantially divergent views. That Charlie Nemeroff is a Reptile is pretty much universally acknowledged. There is no divergence.
Calling Nemeroff's oily shenanigans controversial is like calling the law of gravity controversial.
"I have an M.D. from Harvard, I am board certified in cardio-thoracic medicine and trauma surgery, I have been awarded citations from seven different medical boards in New England, and I am never, ever sick at sea. So I ask you; when someone goes into that chapel and they fall on their knees and they pray to God that their wife doesn't miscarry or that their daughter doesn't bleed to death or that their mother doesn't suffer acute neural trama from postoperative shock, who do you think they're praying to? Now, go ahead and read your Bible, _Dennis_, and you go to your church, and, with any luck, you might win the annual raffle, but if you're looking for God, he was in operating room number two on November 17, and he doesn't like to be second guessed. You ask me if I have a God complex. Let me tell you something: I am God."
Great piece of writing IMO.
Drug Maker Told Studies Would Aid It, Papers Say. By Gardiner Harris New York Times Published: March 19, 2009 www.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/us/20psych.html?_r=1
In a contentious Feb. 26 deposition between Dr.Biederman and lawyers for the states, he was asked what rank he held at Harvard. “Full professor,” he answered.
“What’s after that?” asked a lawyer, Fletch Trammell.
“God,” Dr. Biederman responded.
“Did you say God?” Mr. Trammell asked.
“Yeah,” Dr. Biederman said.
The deposition is available at http://tinyurl.com/6rpwdus
Yeah.
But there is another side to the story about Dr. Biederman. In an entry, “The King of Cringe Strikes Again” (Friday, March 20, 2009) on the (regrettably discontinued) Carlat Psychiatry Blog, blogger Daniel Carlat, MD, discusses the God thing but also supports Dr. Biederman (http://preview.tinyurl.com/cglyso).
I have the same flashes when I think of Nemeroff - the families of the dead from SSRI antidepressants I heard testifying in the 2005 FDA hearings, which resulted in a more inclusive suicde warning being required for the labels.
These two are outstanding rotten apples in a branch of medicine that needs a lot of help.