Frederick Goodwin - Conclusion

Bear with me, readers. I promise this will be the last installment in this series. Let's review the sequence of events:

In March this year, "The Infinite Mind," which has aired on NPR, ran an hour-long show, entitled, Prozac Nation: Revisited. Bill Lichtenstein has produced the award-winning series since its inception. Dr Goodwin has served two stints as host, and filled in as guest host. On this particular show, Dr Goodwin interviewed three psychiatrists. The show took issue with the FDA's black box warning concerning risk of "suicidality" in kids talking antidepressants.

Dr Goodwin made it clear that the show was meant to reassure people who may have been alarmed over sensationalist stories in the media. He and his guests were concerned that FDA's use of the term suicidality was far too strong to accurately describe the self-harm and agitated behavior that some kids experience on antidepressants. Among other things, Dr Goodwin and his guests pointed out that in the studies the FDA relied upon, no one committed suicide.

This was clearly information the public needed to know, but at the same time the lack of a dissenting voice invited valid criticism that the show aired like a drug company infomercial.

The one-sided nature of the commentary is probably what attracted the attention of two reporters, who did what reporters do best - they investigated. In a Slate Magazine piece in May, Shannon Brownlee and Jeanne Lenzer reported that:

"Any radio producer would be hard-pressed to find a more seemingly credible quartet. Credible, that is, except for a crucial detail that was never revealed to listeners: All four of the experts on the show, including Goodwin, have financial ties to the makers of antidepressants."

In addition, the reporters pointed out that Dr Goodwin is on the board of the industry-funded Center for Medicine in the Public Interest. One of his guests is president of CMPI and has a senior position in a marketing firm with industry clients. These associations were not disclosed.

The article also pointed out that the show failed to mention an "unrestricted grant" from Eli Lilly.

The article also cited a 2006 NBC Nightly News segment involving a cancer expert whose research had been funded by a tobacco company.

Based on these facts, the reporters cautioned: "Unless reporters ask where groups and individual researchers get their money, they have no idea that their sources may be biased—and neither do their readers, viewers, and listeners."

The reporters did not get into the debate over whether the duty to disclose should have rested with Dr Goodwin as host or Bill Lichtenstein as producer.

The Slate piece came to the attention of Sen Grassley of Iowa, who had been investigating the financial relationships between physicians and drug companies. These included serious charges involving a number of academic psychiatrists who failed to disclose significant drug industry income to their universities. In a Nov 19 report, entitled, Payments to Radio Host, Sen Grassley referred to these psychiatrists, then he turned his attention to Dr Goodwin: