Dear NAMHPAC,

I was on the Alaska mental health planning council, the Alaska Mental Health Board, from 1998 until earlier this year.

I have learned with dismay that NAMHPAC is promoting the thoroughly discredited T-MAP program with money from the pharmaceutical industry.

NAMHPAC's heavily promoted January, 2004 brochure, "mental illness + medication algorithms: a guide for mental health planning + advisory councils," states:
The National Association of Mental Health Planning and Advisory Councils would like to thank Janssen Pharmaceutica and Eli Lilly and Company for their generosity in funding the production of this important guide.
Of course, Janssen has recently been forced to send out a "Dear Health Care Provider" letter admitting that it has been misrepresenting the safety and efficacy of one of the drugs heavily promoted in the "algorithm" program NAMHPAC has blindly supported:
The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Division of Drug, Marketing, Advertising, and Communications (DDMAC) has asked us to contact you because Janssen Pharmaceutica Products, L.P. recently received a Warning Letter concerning the promotion of Risperdal® (risperidone). This letter provides important corrective information about Risperdal relating to hyperglycemia and Diabetes Mellitus.
The Warning Letter concludes that Janssen disseminated a Risperdal Dear Health Care Provider (DHCP) dated November 10, 2003 that omitted material information about Risperdal, minimized potentially fatal risks, and made misleading claims suggesting superior safety to other atypical antipsychotics without adequate substantiation, in violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
You may find the full letter at http://psychrights.org/drugs/risperidonecorrection.pdf.


As demonstrated in Allen Jones' Whistleblower report, which can be found at http://psychrights.org/Drugs/AllenJonesTMAPJanuary20.pdf, the development of these algorithms is rife with the improper influence of the pharmaceutical industry -- even to the point of corruption.    The Attorney General of the State of New York has even sued GlaxoSmith for fraud.  See, http://psychrights.org/States/NewYork/NY-GSKComplaint.pdf.  Most importantly, these drugs are actually killing children.  When Stefan P. Kruszewski, M.D.,  a psychopharmacologist who taught psychopharmacology for two years at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, as well as subsequently at  Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh and elsewhere found that numerous children had died in Pennsylvania as a result of receiving these drugs, he was fired.  See,  "Whistleblower charges medical oversight bureau with corruption," in the British Medical Journal, Vol 329, 10 July, 2004 bmj.com, which you can find at http://psychrights.org/States/Pennsylvania/BMJonkruszewski.pdf.   His lawsuit can be found at http://psychrights.org/States/Pennsylvania/kruszewskicom.pdf.

Just last week, even the New York Times wrote about how doctors can not even trust FDA approvals and the medical journals because of the improper influence of the pharmaceutical companies.  "Medicine's Data Gap:Results of Drug Trials Can Mystify Doctors Through Omission," New York Times, July 21, 2004, By Barry Meier, which can be accessed at http://psychrights.org/Research/Digest/Science4Sale/NYTimesonDataOmission.htm.  There are many other articles and studies showing this that can be accessed from http://psychrights.org/Research/Digest/Science4Sale/Science4Sale.htm.

Has NAMHPAC become the handmaiden of the pharmaceutical companies?  I hope not. 

I am formally requesting that you provide me with a list of all funding sources and what the funds were used for during the last 5 years time period.

Yours truly,

James B. Gottstein, Esq.

Law Project for Psychiatric Rights
406 G Street, Suite 206
Anchorage, Alaska  99501
Phone: (907) 274-7686)  Fax: (907) 274-9493
jim@psychrights.org
http://psychrights.org/

 PsychRights
            Law Project for
       Psychiatric Rights

The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights is a public interest law firm devoted to the defense of people facing the horrors of unwarranted forced psychiatric drugging.  We are further dedicated to exposing the truth about these drugs and the courts being misled into ordering people to be drugged and subjected to brain and body damaging procedures against their will.  Extensive information about this is available on our web site, http://psychrights.org/. Please donate generously.  Our work is fueled with your IRS 501(c) tax deductible donations.  Thank you for your ongoing help and support.