We’re talking Australia here (the stats for the States are probably worse); and the Australian media is beginning to wonder
1. why the country hasn’t been able to come up with prescription guidelines for this runaway train; and
2. why the committee of experts charged with this task has got in-hock-to-pharma folk on it.
Of course the underlying problem is that Australia is … a little slow. How long does it take for news to get there? We’ve known for years that Joseph Biederman’s research is compromised by his own pharma affiliations, but here comes the committee to announce that they’ve been unable to decide on the Australian guidelines because
US psychiatrist Joseph Biederman, whose work is cited over 80 times in the draft guidelines, and two colleagues were sanctioned by Harvard University after allegedly failing to report more than $1.6m they received from drug firms.
Uh… ye-e-e-s-s… Biederman’s conflicts of interest and non-disclosures and, er, “strong pro-drug views” have now gotten him into formal trouble. But Harvard took its sweet time. Everybody’s been scandalized by Biederman for ages. Where were you guys?
Meanwhile, millions of children down under get diagnosed with ADHD and have to take really strong drugs… I guess… Ho hum.
July 13th, 2011 at 3:28PM
didn’t you read that safety-study on the impact of stimulants on the developing brain, oh wait there isn’t one…