Biederman is undone – and no one is more deserving to have his life’s work refuted

Unringing the Bell

Biederman is undone.

And that’s truly great news.

Is it too extreme to call this guy a monster? I’ll let you decide.

Here’s a quick recap…

From the late 90s to about 2007, Harvard child psychiatrist Dr. Joseph Biederman conducted research that aggressively broadened the definition of bipolar disorder. According to PBS’ Frontline, there was a 4,000 percent increase in the number of children diagnosed as bipolar over the decade that Biederman and colleagues expanded the concept of the disorder.

Four THOUSAND percent.

And that research prompted a huge jump in the use of powerful (and potentially dangerous) antipsychotic medications for very young children.

A new study, published just last month, found that antipsychotic drugs prescribed for children between the ages of 2 to 5 doubled over the past decade. For that we can thank Biederman and his influential claim that mood swings in children as young as 2 can be diagnosed as bipolar.

Revolting, no? And all of that would be bad enough. But it gets much worse.

Two years ago, Senator Charles Grassley accused Biederman of failing to fully disclose payments from drug companies that make antipsychotic drugs.

According to the New York Times, Biederman accepted more than $1.6 million from drug companies between 2000 and 2007.

But, yeah, it gets even worse.

Court documents revealed that Biederman assured Johnson & Johnson executives that studies he was involved in would end up showing benefits of two different antipsychotic drugs made by J&J. At the time, Biederman was director of the Johnson & Johnson Center for Pediatric Psychopathology Research at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Bottom line: Biederman fattened his bank account nicely while his influence prompted unnecessary drug use in untold number of infants.

Sweet comeuppance

There was a time when Biederman’s influence seemed unstoppable.

In 2007, Dr. Lawrence Diller told the Boston Globe that colleagues in the child psychiatry field were afraid to speak out against Biederman.

Dr. Diller: “To politely challenge Biederman in public is to risk public retribution and ridicule from him and his team. Also academic researchers in child psychiatry risk losing their funding if they criticize this darling of the pharmaceutical industry…”

So it’s with the greatest pleasure that I share this with you today: Biederman is about to be undone.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is psychiatry’s combination guidebook and encyclopedia. And it’s now being revised for a new edition.

According to the New York Times, this manual draws the line between normal and not normal, and provides psychiatrists with their primary guide for treating patients.

A Columbia University psychiatry professor told the Times, “Anything you put in that book, any little change you make, has huge implications not only for psychiatry but for pharmaceutical marketing.”

The new edition is not yet completed, but the Times reports that the definition of bipolar disorder in children will be significantly changed. And that change will sharply reduce the use of antipsychotic medications for the very young.

According to one psychiatrist: “The treatment of bipolar disorder is meds first, meds second and meds third.” But if children are diagnosed instead with a behavior disorder, then the primary treatment is behavioral treatment before drugs are considered.

It’s a sad day for Johnson & Johnson and other companies that make antipsychotic drugs. And it’s a sad day for Biederman and his undone influence.

But it’s an excellent day for the kids.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson

Source:
“Revising Book on Disorders of the Mind” Benedict Carey, New York Times, 2/10/10, nytimes.com