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Some things about this tawdry era of academic psychiatry just don’t make sense. I don’t understand the why of these graphs – why they would go to the trouble to publish this many papers, particularly on a study that was a $35 M bust. The only thing I can come up with is that the article count <\/em>comes into consideration when applying for the next NIMH grant. Maybe it’s a hobby? Most of these papers were written by Jon Kilner<\/a>, a medical editorial assistant AKA ghost-writer.<\/p>\n Speaking of hobbies, I have one. Every time Madhukar Trivedi’s name shows up, I check in on what he’s been up to lately. The stimulus this time was an infomercial in a [North Central] West Virginia paper [not annotated as an advertisement] someone sent our way. It’s a remarkable piece on how to get your loved one<\/em> on Viibryd®<\/font><\/strong> [Help your loved one face depression<\/a>]. <\/p>\n Recall that the team of John Rush and Madhukar Trivedi have been on a treatment by algorithm kick for fifteen years:<\/p>\n CO-MED<\/font><\/strong> wasn’t much to write home about. Having exhausted sequencing antidepressants in STAR*D<\/font><\/strong>, they decided to try the two at a time [above]. As you can see, that didn’t work either [there was no placebo group in either STAR*D<\/font><\/strong> or CO-MED<\/font><\/strong>, adding to their lack of usefulness].<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/images\/prefer-2.gif\")
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They started with TMAP<\/font><\/strong>, a scheme to get public medical systems to use expensive in-patent drugs rather than generics busted by Allen Jones after it had spread to 17 states. Turning to the NIMH, they did STAR*D<\/font><\/strong> to try out their algorithms and found essentially nada [a thirty-five million dollar misunderstanding… <\/a>], though it generated well over a hundred publications. I call it paper churning<\/em> after my grandmother’s butter-making technique or what stock-brokers do to generate extra fees – a lot of extra buying and selling with no real purpose. STAR*D<\/font><\/strong> is the gold standard for paper churning<\/em> with 100+ papers. Trivedi got nine [the if³ hypothesis<\/em>…<\/a>] out of his NIMH funded IMPACTS<\/font><\/strong> study [impressive, as the study never even happened because the doctors wouldn’t use his computer algorithms]. So since Trivedi’s name came up, I thought I’d take a look at how the CO-MED<\/font><\/strong> publication rate was coming along, churning-wise.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/images\/co-med-3.gif\")
<\/p>\nHere’s their productivity so far. Read the titles. That’s what churning<\/em> is – thinking up creative ways for the ghost-writer to squeeze more and more papers from the same dataset: <\/div>\n <\/p>\n
Combining medications to enhance depression outcomes (CO-MED): acute and long-term outcomes of a single-blind randomized study.<\/a>
by Rush AJ, Trivedi MH<\/font>, Stewart JW, Nierenberg AA, Fava M, Kurian BT, Warden D, Morris DW, Luther JF, Husain MM, Cook IA, Shelton RC, Lesser IM, Kornstein SG, and Wisniewski SR.
Am J Psychiatry. 2011 168(7):689-701.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n Randomized comparison of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (escitalopram) monotherapy and antidepressant combination pharmacotherapy for major depressive disorder with melancholic features: a CO-MED report.<\/a>
by Bobo WV, Chen H, Trivedi MH<\/font><\/strong>, Stewart JW, Nierenberg AA, Fava M, Kurian BT, Warden D, Morris DW, Luther JF, Husain MM, Cook IA, Lesser IM, Kornstein SG, Wisniewski SR, Rush AJ, and Shelton RC.
J Affect Disord. 2011 133(3):467-76. <\/div>\n<\/li>\nBaseline depression severity as a predictor of single and combination antidepressant treatment outcome: results from the CO-MED trial.<\/a>
by Friedman ES, Davis LL, Zisook S, Wisniewski SR, Trivedi MH<\/font><\/strong>, Fava M, Rush AJ; and the CO-MED Study Team.
Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2012 22(3):183-99.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n Effects of race and ethnicity on depression treatment outcomes: the CO-MED trial.<\/a>
by Lesser IM, Zisook S, Gaynes BN, Wisniewski SR, Luther JF, Fava M, Khan A, McGrath P, Warden D, Rush AJ, and Trivedi M<\/font><\/strong>.
Psychiatr Serv. 2011 62(10):1167-79. <\/div>\n<\/li>\nCorrelates and outcomes of depressed out-patients with greater and fewer anxious symptoms: a CO-MED report.<\/a>
by Chan HN, Rush AJ, Nierenberg AA, Trivedi M<\/font><\/strong>, Wisniewski SR, Balasubramani GK, Friedman ES, Gaynes BN, Davis L, Morris D, and Fava M.
Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. 2012 15(10):1387-99.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
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