A Reader Comments

A Reader Comments

I posted recently about the conflicts of interest inherent in mental health advocacy groups accepting funding from pharma companies. A reader replied with something so good I wanted to make sure you all saw it:

"CABF is a not for profit support/info online site www.bpkids.org They now have membership fees, though in the past did not. I long suspected them of receiving drug company money, per posts of mine years before the FDA announced the connection of antidepressants and suicidal ideation in kids, I was posting there, telling how my daughter while on Zoloft, or any other antidepressant only had suicidal thoughts when on an antidepressant.Most of the time my posts that were required to say "Im not a doctor, etc" were deleted, no explanations. Some members were banned from the site, for being part of what they called med-bashing, etc. We were telling real stories about our real kids and antidepressant use. Years went by, and we found out that they had to start taking membership fees per some drug companies pulling out funding support. We knew it all along. Money talks, it is all a business deal. It is disgusting, I totally agree."

CABF is the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation, a group advocating for the diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder in youngsters. It's chilling to me that they were engaging in censorship. I hope other advocacy groups don't stoop to that level. BTW, CABF is still an arm of the pharma industry, listing Abbott Labs, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen/J&J, Eli Lilly and Pfizer as contributors to the group. And you all know what drugs these companies make.