This afternoon, I found out that Karen Dineen Wagner had been elected President of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She will be President Elect [2015-2017], President [2017-2019], and Past President [2019-2021] – all three being positions of active leadership in that organization. I find her nomination and subsequent election hard to fathom. She has been in the center of every Child and Adolescent Psychiatry scandal on recent record:
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2001: Efficacy of Paroxetine in the Treatment of Adolescent Major Depression: A Randomized, Controlled Trial. "Paroxetine is generally well tolerated and effective for major depression in adolescents."by Keller MB, Ryan ND, Strober M, Klein RG, Kutcher SP, Birmaher B, Hagino OR, Koplewicz H, Carlson GA, Clarke GN, Emslie GJ, Feinberg D, Geller B, Kusumakar V, Papatheodorou G, Sack WH, Sweeney M, Wagner KD, Weller EB, Winters NC, Oakes R, and McCafferty JPJournal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2001, 40(7):762–772.ghost-written by Sally Laden of STI.
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2002: Fluoxetine for Acute Treatment of Depression in Children and Adolescents: A Placebo-Controlled, Randomized Clinical Trial. "Fluoxetine was superior to placebo in the acute phase treatment of major depressive disorder in child and adolescent outpatients with severe, persistent depression."by Emslie GJ, Heiligenstein JH, Wagner KD, Hoog SL, Ernest DE, Brown E, Nilsson M, and Jacobson JGJournal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2002, 41(10):1205–1215.
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2003: Efficacy of sertraline in the treatment of children and adolescents with major depressive disorder: two randomized controlled trials. "…sertraline is an effective and well-tolerated short-term treatment for children and adolescents with MDD."by Wagner KD, Ambrosini P, Rynn M, Wohlberg C, Yang R, Greenbaum MS, Childress A, Donnelly C, Deas D; and the Sertraline Pediatric Depression Study GroupJournal of the American Medical Association. 2003, 290(8):1033-41.ghost-written [see A Cure Worse Than the Disease TRIAL reference 21.].
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2004: A randomized, placebo-controlled trial of citalopram for the treatment of major depression in children and adolescents. "…treatment with citalopram reduced depressive symptoms to a significantly greater extent than placebo treatment and was well tolerated."by Wagner KD, Robb AS, Findling RL, Jin J, Gutierrez MM, and Heydorn WEThe American Journal of Psychiatry. 2004, 161:1079-1083.ghost-written Note: This article received a special public rebuke from the AJP editor when they discovered it was ghost-written [see collusion with fiction…].
Paradoxically, Karen Wagner and some of her co-authors in these studies were later on the ACNP [American College of Neuropsychopharmacology] Task Force convened to report on these questions after the Black Box Warning was added by the FDA in 2004:
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by Mann JJ, Emslie G, Baldessarini RJ, Beardslee W, Fawcett JA, Goodwin FK, Leon AC, Meltzer HY, Ryan ND, Shaffer D, and Wagner KDNeuropsychopharmacology. 2006 31:473–492.
She made Senator Grassley’s list of psychiatrists found to have failed to report personal pharmaceutical income to their universities by law:
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2008: Statement of Senator Charles E. Grassley Before the United States Senate, Payments to Physicians, September 9, 2008.
She is the Child and Adolescent columnist for the Psychiatric Times:
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2006-2015: Articles promoting antidepressants in MDD, stimulants in ADHD, antipsychotics in childhood Bipolar Disorder, and opposing the FDA Black Box Warning. List of the 27 articles.
This listing is by no means comprehensive, but it does frame the central themes of her tenure as Marie B. Gale Centennial Professor and Vice Chair in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Dr. Wagner’s positions on Child and Adolescent treatment are widely known throughout and beyond the membership of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. So by electing her to lead them, in one form or another, the AACAP has chosen its path into the future – a path I find deeply troubling…
I’m old enough to remember when the need for a ghostwriter was limited to athletes who decided to write biographies and intellectuals would scoff at the notion of such a thing.
the question is: are we surprised?
the answer is no.
in fact, we expected this would happen eventually. the next question is: who the hell cares about these organizations anymore? it grows clearer by the day that the sophisticated, scholarly, pursuit of psychiatry must be conducted free of affiliations with these organizations.
our area is on the verge of being clumped with scientology, get it together guys.
gagan,
I agree with your point, but I was surprised. Schatzberg had already been elected APA president when Senator Grassley busted him. Had he any caring about the APA, he would’ve stepped down, but that’s not his m.o. Over time, I’ve come to see the AACAP as run from the top down by a particular psychopharm clique too, one that cycles jobs among themselves. But I guess I thought they were at least trying to give an image of being the organization they once were. So much for that foolish fantasy. So, the facts are in your court, “the sophisticated, scholarly, pursuit of psychiatry must be conducted free of affiliations with these organizations“…
Once again we see this type of person reaching leadership roles in any number of organizations. The charismatic, likeable, well placed person manipulates their way to the top. They have no qualms about taking credit for ghostwritten articles since their sense of entitlement allows them not to feel guilt.
The book Snakes in Suits fits in more than a business setting.
Steve Lucas
It sure would be refreshing to see the turn of the wheel that renders these organizations obsolete.
Snakes in Suits does deserve an academic equivalent…
how about Tools with Tenure?