{"id":19994,"date":"2012-02-21T16:04:46","date_gmt":"2012-02-21T21:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=19994"},"modified":"2012-02-21T21:00:23","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T02:00:23","slug":"suspicious-minds-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2012\/02\/21\/suspicious-minds-2\/","title":{"rendered":"suspicious mind[s]…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yesterday, I got an email asking for the source of something I posted recently. It was from a pretty incriminating document from Forest Laboratories entitled Lexapro: FY04 Marketing Plan [available here<\/font><\/strong><\/u><\/a>]. I originally got the reference from one of Paul Thacker’s POGO<\/font><\/strong> articles [You’re Fired: Forest Lab’s CEO May Be Banned from Federal Healthcare<\/font><\/strong><\/u><\/a>]. The reason it’s so incriminating is obvious ["…developed by (or ghost-written for) thought leaders<\/font><\/strong><\/em>"]: <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

It was in a section called "Marketing Tactics" [stamped "Confidential"]. As I was looking it up, almost without thinking, I clicked through the section but woke up when I saw this:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Everything else in the section had an explanation for why it was there – everything but this. It was from a time when Dr. Nemeroff was Chairman at Emory. I didn’t know about any connection between Dr. Nemeroff with either Forest Laboratories or Lexapro, so I Googled <nemeroff+lexapro>. Up near the top was a link to something on the Lexapro web site – a page of suggested readings one of which was:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Here we go again. In 2004, Nemeroff was Chairman of Psychiatry at Emory and Editor-in-Chief, of Neuropsychopharmacology. That year, Dennis Charney was promoted to Dean at Mount Sinai Medical School. I actually kind of doubt they had much time to spend on a Self-Help Book. Monotonous isn’t it? <\/p>\n

<\/a>\"2001\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So, who is Stephen R. Braun?  Well he’s written a couple of books:<\/p>\n

\"1997\"<\/a>\"2001\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Insert<\/font><\/strong>: And so friend Martha came by while I was nosing around and muttering about this. She went home and found Stephen R. Braun’s Webesite [braunmedicalmedia.com<\/font><\/strong><\/u><\/a>] describing his professional medical writing career, and it had this to say:<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Note<\/font><\/strong>: No, Martha doesn’t ghost-write this blog, but she’s one fine Internet searcher.<\/em><\/p>\n

But Dr. Nemeroff doesn’t include Stephen R. Braun as an author of The Peace of Mind Prescription<\/strong> in his r\u00c3\u00a9sum\u00c3\u00a9<\/font><\/strong><\/u><\/a>, just he and Dr. Charney. Based on the helpful rule of evidence often quoted by Dr. Phil ["the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior<\/em>"], I’m hypothesizing that Steven R. Braun wrote this book [confirmed via Martha<\/em>], and that Drs. Charney and Nemeroff were "guest authors," probably signed on by someone at Forest Laboratories, and that the $100,000 Institutional Grant listed at the top of the page is the payment. But how would one prove such an assertion? Stephen Braun doesn’t list Forest as a customer. Well, looking to see how Lexapro comes out in the book might be a start, so Mr. Amazon.com is kindly sending me a used copy for $0.08 + shipping as we speak. Why even bother? It’s because this kind of thing is how the chairmen KOLs built their departments with pharmaceutical institutional grants, and that’s why places like Emory University put up with these clowns. At least, that’s my hypothesis?<\/em><\/div>\n
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Later Addendum<\/font><\/strong><\/u>: Having awakened the beast, I received this email from Martha shortly after posting this:<\/div>\n