But your average reporter for a daily newspaper does not know this. Hence this example of execrable journalism from the Boston Globe, directed at Harvard child bipolar expert Joeseph Biederman MD, virtually indistinguishable from a Scientology tract:
“Biederman's critics chide him for not speaking out against misuses of a diagnosis that he has helped inspire. Among leading authorities on bipolar disorder, the Mass General team has proposed the most aggressive treatment for the broadest group of children, they say, and Biederman should take responsibility when treatment goes wrong.
“At a conference on bipolar disorder at Pittsburgh's Point Park University [sic] last weekend, one speaker, Dr. Lawrence Diller, a California behavioral pediatrician, contended that Biederman bears some blame for Riley's death. “
"’I find Biederman and his group to be morally responsible in part,’ said Diller, whose popular book, ‘Running on Ritalin,’ accused psychiatrists of over treating another childhood condition, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. 'He didn't write the prescription, but he provided all the, quote, scientific justification to address a public health issue by drugging little kids.'"
The article also takes Dr Biederman to task for accepting - heaven forbid – research funding from drug companies. The implication is that child bipolar is a drug company plot.
The antipsychiatrists, of course, have been recycling the story as authority, one account which describes Dr Biederman as a “psychiatric monster.”
The real monsters, of course, are the antipsychiatrists, who fed a naïve (this is only his first piece on child bipolar) Boston Globe reporter the story in the first place and who need to be held accountable for the misinformation they spread, and for its tragic consequences.
To return once more to a rational voice, that of the Surgeon General, from his 2001 report
"Approximately 50 percent of students labeled [with emotional or behavioral disorders] drop out of school; only 42 percent of those who remain graduate with a diploma. Post secondary outcomes are also poor, including multiple jobs, criminal behavior, and unemployment."
Dr Biederman, at least, is working on solutions. From the antipsychiatrists it's nothing but same old-same old.
