Mothers Act Fuels Multibillion Dollar Industry
by: Evelyn Pringle
Posted April 11, 2009
Follow the Money Honey...
The 2007 Annual Report for the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance shows this Big Pharma front group received between $150,000 and $499,000 from AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Wyeth. Abbott Labs, Cyberonics, Eli Lilly, Forest Labs, GlaxoSmithKline, Organon, and Otsuka American Pharmaceuticals each gave between $10,000 and $149,999.
The 2006 Annual Report shows that AstraZeneca gave the group more than $500,000. Abbott Labs, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Wyeth gave between $150,000 and $499,000, and Forest Labs, Glaxo, Janssen, Pfizer, and Shire Pharmaceuticals each gave between $10,000 and $149,000. The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance in Baltimore also received $5,000 from Eli Lilly in the first quarter of 2008, according to Lilly's grant report.
In the section of the 2007 Annual report "at a Glance: How We Met Our Mission," among the things accomplished by the group, it states:
"Promoted Melanie Blocker-Stokes Postpartum Depression Research & Care Act at invitation of Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.)
"Promoted MOTHER's Act at invitation of Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)"
After writing letters to Congress through the link established by the industry funded Alliance, those visiting Postpartum Progress will hopefully click on the link to Amazon and buy the book "Perinatal and Postpartum Mood Disorders: Perspectives and Treatment Guide for the Health Care Practitioner" by none other than the Perinatal Pro "expert," Susan (Dowd) Stone, and Alexis Menkin, at a special price of $43.20, for a savings of $10.80.
Katherine also provides a link to the PerinatalPro website, where women can find treatment for all the "mood" and "anxiety" disorders diagnosed with internet screenings at "Blue Skye Consulting," where Susan is listed as the Managing Director and Owner.
She also served as president of Postpartum Support International from 2006 - 2008, as vice-president and Conference Chair in 2005 - 2006, and will chair the group's President's Advisory Council through 2010. This group brags of being the leading proponent of the Mother's Act. On March 2, 2009, Susan's PerinatalPro Blog announced: "The Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act moves forward!" and stated:
"Thank you to Congressman Bobby L. Rush, U.S. Senator Robert Menendez and Senator Richard Durbin for your unceasing efforts on behalf of America's mothers!"
She should have thanked these members of Congress for boosting her career status and yearly income from her treatment center, speaking fees and book sales.
On PerinatalPro, Susan posts a running list of supporters for the Mother's Act. On March 27, 2009, the list included many drug company funded groups. For instance, the American Psychiatric Association is listed as a supporter. In 2006, the pharmaceutical industry provided close to 30% of the Association's $62.5 million in financing, according to the July 12, 2008 New York Times.
In the first quarter of 2007, Eli Lilly gave the Association grants worth more than $412,000, according to Lilly's grant report. The group also received $623,190 from Lilly in the first quarter of 2008.
In her PerinatalPro blogs, Susan has nothing but praise for Katherine's website and directs visitors back to Postpartum Progress with a live link. On March 16, 2009, Katherine posted a "Quick Survey on Postpartum Anxiety," and wrote:
"The fabulous Karen Kleiman has asked me to ask you to participate in a short, five-question online survey on anxiety. She says anyone can answer it, regardless of the age of their baby(s) and regardless of diagnosis or lack thereof. Any mother should answer the questions. It's super quick -- I know because I took it myself."
Kleiman must be fabulous because she has three books for sale on Postpartum Progress with links to purchase them on Amazon. In fact, there are a total of fourteen books for sale on Katherine's site from which she most likely gets a kick-back with every sale.
Setting the Trap
Kleiman's survey is an excellent example of the methods used to con women into suspecting they are mentally ill via the "expert" blogs. The preface states: "The questions on this survey can be answered by a new mother of an infant or an empty-nester with good recall of the early days with her baby. Please answer as honestly as you can."
The question, capital letters and all, reads: "When you were carrying your baby down a flight of stairs, did you EVER, at ANY time, have ANY thought, image or concern that you could accidentally drop your baby?" The survey further tells women:
If you answered YES to the first question, please describe the type of worry you had:
- Scary thoughts about dropping the baby,
- Scary images about dropping the baby,
- Both thoughts and images,
- Other
How much distress did this cause you?
- A Great deal of distress,
- Some distress but I quickly got over it,
- Some distress that seemed to linger,
- Not much stress.
Did this thought or image occur once or did it recur?
- Only once,
- It recurred frequently,
- It recurred persistently,
- It occurred off and on.
Did you ever tell anyone about the fear of dropping the baby?
- (Please describe why you chose to tell someone or why you chose not to.)
As a mother with good recall, the "honest" answer is yes, with two babies born 4-years apart, every single night as I stumbled out of bed half asleep for a nightly feeding, my normal fear instinct kicked in and warned me to be careful not to trip and fall down the stairs or drop the baby.
Women who take the survey are told nothing about what the results mean; but clearly the seed is planted that something is wrong if you "Ever, at any time, have any thought, image or concern that you could accidentally drop your baby".
Katherine's website also provides links to the "Top Women's PPMD Treatment Programs & Specialists." The first link on the list takes women to the "Emory Women's Mental Health Program" that primarily focuses on "the evaluation and treatment of emotional disorders during pregnancy and the postpartum period," according to Emory University's website. Lilly's 2008 first quarter grant report shows Emory's Department of Psychiatry received $25,000.
The "experts" at Emory include some top pharmaceutical industry shills. For example, a link to "Articles" brings up roughly 90 studies and papers that include the co-author Dr. Charles Nemeroff. Nemeroff is on an ever-growing list of academic researchers in the field of psychiatry under investigation by the US Senate Finance Committee for not disclosing millions of dollars of income from the makers of psychotropic drugs.
Emory's investigation found he was paid more than $960,000 by Paxil maker, GlaxoSmithKline, from 2000 through 2006, but listed less than $35,000 on his Emory disclosure forms. All totaled, Nemeroff had earnings of $2.8 million from speaking and consulting arrangements with drug companies between 2000 and 2007, but only disclosed a fraction of that amount, according to the Senate Finance Committee reports.
On July 23, 2008, Medscape Psychiatry & Mental Health posted an article by Nemeroff titled: "Weighing Risk and Benefit for Treatment of Depression in Pregnancy and Post Partum". On March 17, 2009, the Medscape website stated: "This article is temporarily unavailable."
Maybe that's because the "top expert," Dr. Nemeroff, recently stepped down as chairman of Emory's psychiatry department.
Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for Scoop Independent News and an investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government and corporate America. This article reprinted with permission from the author.
Learn More...
- H.R. 20: Gov Track
- H.R. 20: Washington Watch
- S. 324: Open Congress
- Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate
More Articles by Evelyn Pringle
- Activists Take on Eli Lilly Over Off-Label Sale of Zyprexa
- Lawsuits -- Only Weapon Available Against Giant Big Pharma Pushers
- Nursing Home Inspection Process Full Of Corruption
- Public Has a Right to Know Secrets Revealed in Zyprexa Documents
- Eli Lilly The Habitual Offender
