JANUARY 13, 2009

Response to David Braff, MD PhD, President of the ACNP

I got a call yesterday from David Braff MD PhD, President of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) and Professor of Psychiatry at UCSD. It seems that some of my fellow ACNP members were miffed about my post "A Dissenting Opinion from the ACNP on Suicidality and Antidepressants". To set the record straight, the post was meant in jest, although a number of sites picked it up as evidence of "sleazy" behavior of ACNP members. ACNP members don't routinely get drunk at poster sessions, as I implied. Although beer and wine is served there (as it is at the American Heart Association meeting, per Mrs. Bremner, and a number of other meetings) I hope they don't stop that practice because of my post! And the comment about the prostitutes being cheaper in Puerto Rico wasn't meant to imply that ACNP members currently frequent prostitutes. After all, they moved the meeting to Scottsdale, AZ. This was based on a rumour I heard years ago about scurilous activity that occurred back when the meeting started there in the 1960s. But I think it might have been a joke so I take it back. And if I have offended any ACNP members, I apologize.

As for the comments about the person who drew his poster title with a crayon and the other one who sat in a lawn chair next to his poster criticizing another ACNP member, well, what can I say?

On a more positive note, in response to concerns about the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on academic psychiatry through pharma funded educational activities and drug promotional talks and concerns that this compromises the patient-physician relationship, one of the ACNP members, Robert Golden, MD, Dean of the University of Wisconsin Medical School (Madison), has instituted a policy to place signs in clinics alerting patients that their doctors may be receiving payments from drug companies and providing a form so that they can get more information.

The Drug Safety and Health News blog applauds the efforts of Dr. Golden which truly represents a move in a new direction.

To comment on this blog please write to jamesdouglasbremner@yahoo.com and indicate whether comments are public or private.

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COMMENTS

If anyone should have the right to question Dr Bremner’s comparative expertise on the going rates asked by prostitutes at past ACNP congress venues, it’s Mrs Bremner, MD. But then Mrs Bremner obviously got the joke.

Why do high-raking members of the ACNP, as the English say, get their knickers in a twist about this? Don’t they have anything more pressing to worry about and comment on, like, uuh, shills being KOLs?

Pease keep up the good work!

Susie (M-1, in Europe)