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Robert Whitaker's
December 12-15, 2002 trip to Alaska

Robert Whitaker, the award winning science writer and author of Mad In America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill, is going to be in Alaska speaking to the Alaska Mental Health Board at its meeting in the morning of December 13th at the Anchorage Hilton. If you get there by 10:30 you will almost certainly be in time to hear him. This is expected to be the primary public speaking engagement for Mr. Whitaker during his trip. Mr. Whitaker will be presenting a synopsis of his exhaustive research, including how the current treatment paradigm for the mentally ill is substantially reducing positive outcomes and that people in the United States and other developed countries diagnosed with mental illness (schizophrenia specifically) results in much worse outcomes than in the poor countries of the world, such as Nigeria, India and Columbia.

It is anticipated that Mr. Whitaker also be available at the Mental Health Board's Planning Committee on the morning of December 14th to talk further about his findings and its implications. Mr. Whitaker is also scheduled to talk to psychiatrists and other clinical staff at the Alaska Psychiatric Institute (API), Alaska's sole state-operated mental hospital and the statewide organization of Community Mental Health Centers.

Robert Whitaker

Robert Whitaker has been reporting on science and medicine for nearly 15 years. He first worked as a science/medical writer at the Albany Times Union, in Albany New York. He then worked for a period as director of publications at Harvard Medical School, and in 1994, he co-founded a company called CenterWatch, that covered the business aspects of the clinical testing of new drugs. He sold CenterWatch in 1998, partly in order write Mad in America. His articles on the mentally ill and the drug industry have won several awards, including the George Polk award for medical writing, and the National Association of Science Writer's Award for best magazine article. A series he co-wrote for the Boston Globe on psychiatric research was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1998.

Last modified 11/28/2002