The name of another prominent psychiatrist has been added to the list of expert physicians identified by Sen. Chuck Grassley because of lucrative speaking fees from pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Frederick Goodwin, recognized expert on bipolar disorder, former head of the National Institute of Mental Health, and current host of the popular NPR radio show, The Infinite Mind, was the subject of a story in Slate in May. Goodwin has apparently received more than one million dollars from just one drug company, Grassley noted for the Congressional Recordon Nov. 19:
Since 2000, GlaxoSmithKline has paid the host of a radio program on psychiatry over $1.2 million in speaking fees and over $100,000 in expenses. People should know that, based on information from Glaxo, most of these fees were paid to Dr. Goodwin through Best Practice, a pharmaceutical consulting firm that he helped establish in the late nineties. Among the many services that have been offered by Best Practice are marketing consultation, and the "dissemination of new off label information.''
Failure to disclose conflicts-of-interest is hardly limited to psychiatry, but recent accounts about research and academic psychiatrists with close ties to pharmaceutical companies has contributed to vocal criticism and shaken the profession. Grassley renewed requests for information about how NIH monitors conflicts-of-interest while managing nearly $24 billion dispensed in grants. The Infinite Mind is among its recipients. The New York Times reported that NPR will stop carrying the program.
