I'm one of the people who sent Philip the article in the NYT, but I didn't take a close look at the whole issue until just now.

All I want to say is follow the link in Philip's post to the images of the campaign. Please. They are deeply disturbing---talk about fear-mongering this is terror-mongering.

Well this Harold Koplewicz is I believe a "coauthor" toether with the disgraced Martin keller of the infamous paxil Study 329 (the study that GSK appears to have cheated, ghostwritten and distorted). That places him pretty much beyond the pale as a human being. He is certainly not a credible scientist based on the usual understanding of that word.

Why should anyone believe anything he says??

Aubrey Blumsohn

It is my opinion that this is all about power plays and money. The docs and pharma want to own and run the country [actually they already do - ask anyone who smokes] - never mind the feelings or dignity of children or their parents and other relative & friends.

This is really a disgrace to our nation but it is to be expected since our whole society is now oriented toward "health" or what the power mongers believe is "health". These fanatics who control this orientation aren't about to let up or give anyone a break - including children --because there is too much money/power involved.

I hope Dr. K loses his job over this terrible error in judgment. It really shows where these guys are coming from I have to say. I am horrified. Pity the children too. Imagine having someone think this way about you if you act a little bizarre.

Hi,

As one who has a non verbal learning disability, which is considered on the autistic spectrum by some people (I go back and forth as to whether I agree or not), I was very offended when I heard about this "ransom note" campaign.

Yes, I can have trouble socially, due to difficulties with reading non verbal language but I am not a detriment to myself and greatly resent the inference that I am.

Furthermore, the ads don't even tell parents what a condition like AS looks like. That is not educating the parent but is simply fear monguering.

Interesting discovery about the Paxil issue. As one who feels that psych meds have considerably worsened by NLD, I was also very upset that this guy was pushing medication for all the conditions, particuarly AS, autism, and ADHD, When I emailed this guy, I deliberately stayed away from the med issues as I didn't want the focus to be diverted from the offensiveness of the ads. But this just proves even more this guy has no credibility whatsoever.

AA

good for you AA, on all of it.

For a moment Dr. Koplewicz should consider the outcomes associated with what is routinely asserted to be the most intensive medium and long term treatment for children, Residential Treatment Centers. From Bazelon's website, Among the rare children who are able to overcome these obstacles, few can sustain the gains they have made. In one study, nearly 50% of children were readmitted to an RTC, and 75% were either renstitutionalized or arrested.

I only wish that those who promote treatment took the time to consider the sad state of the mental health system and the care it routinely provides but this doesn't suit their agenda. Given that President Bush's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health reached the united belief that America's mental health service delivery system is in shambles. Can a mental health system in shambles routinely foster outcomes not reflective of its own weaknesses?

Fact Sheet: Children in Residential Treatment Centers

http://www.bazelon.org/issues/children/factsheets/rtcs.htm

Interim Report to the President: Cover Letter

http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov/reports/interim_letter.htm

The BBDO ad agency represents Pfizer. Also GSK. No big surprise. Found this online:

January 27, 2003
THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING -- ADDENDA; Pfizer Is Shifting Lubriderm to BBDO
By PATRICIA WINTERS LAURO
Pfizer is expanding a new relationship with the New York office of BBDO Worldwide, part of the Omnicom Group, by shifting to the agency the creative duties on the account of the Lubriderm line of skin-care products in the United States. The account had been at J. Walter Thompson in New York, part of the WPP Group. Spending was estimated at $15 million to $30 million.

Jay Kosminsky, a spokesman at Pfizer in New York, confirmed a report of the decision last week in the online edition of Adweek. The decision, made without a review, comes as Pfizer acquires Pharmacia in Peapack, N.J.; BBDO New York handles two Pharmacia drug brands, Nicotrol and Rogaine.

I don't know if it's just me or what, but I can't view any of the ad images from that "aboutourkids" link.

What I find especially weird is that these ads depict autism, depression, adhd, etc. as being completely separate from the afflicted person.

I can't speak for everyone, but my depression and anxiety are part of me and can't be excised — they aren't blemishes on the face of an otherwise perfect abercrombie and fitch model.

But I do think the ads are well done in terms of communicating to a particular audience. Nobody wants their kids to have to suffer, to have to deal with all these extra issues when instead they should be slaughtering monsters in the latest video game.

Thse ads appeal to that by saying to parents, "Hey, there's still a normal kid under all that autism. Just pay the ransom and he won't be hurt."

(Sorry for being excessively wordy.)

""Don't let a psychiatric disorder take your child."

The autism community is offering the most intense criticism of the campaign and has created a petition calling for an end to the campaign."

Pay attention to this.

in psych-social threatment there is a lot of lip service to the idea that your mental illness isnt really you, you are good and sane etc. . .but it is hard to find anything close to a line dividing me from my illness. villify my illness and villify a large part of me. and so i identify with AA's comment. (granted i'm not a kid, but wouldn't be supprized if they felt similar, ya?)

cynical pondering : during the industrial revolution children worked in factories (indeed this is still the case in many places) because it benifited that production economy. now kids are all mentally ill (perhaps) because it serves the pharmacutical/medical economy.

question for anyone who knows the kid psych scene: how much stigma is really out there against children who are "crazy"?

Hey Phil,

I'm not really terribly familiar with the big names in the industry - I'm not a psychiatrist, after all! Anyway, I exchanged emails with Aubrey Blumsohn, and nearly fell of my chair when his reply came back.

Harold Koplewicz co-authored the infamous paper (with Professor Marty Keller, et al) on Paxil Protocol 329 (if you're not familiar, that's the one where a pile of kak was turned into a pile of kak with a ribbon on it). GSK may not have provided the funding for this ad campaign, but you can bet it wasn't disinterested, and, given his history, you can bet that Koplewicz is conflicted.

Matt

Joe posted an RTC article in a comment;and I have written about it on my blog,back in May. here's my post re: Fact Sheet: Children in Residential Treatment Centers.

Thank goodness Aubrey caught the Paxil part!

I forgot to add that this statement, "The idea behind the “Ransom Notes” is that, all too often, untreated psychiatric disorders are holding our children hostage. These disorders rob children of the ability to learn, make and keep friends and enjoy life." --in my opinion--should read that it is the psych meds that hold the kid hostage, and rob them of their childhoods, ability to learn[try thinking on Seroquel, or Zyprexa,] or make friends when you bloat up on Depakote--don't forget Biederman and friends always say ADHD is co-morbid with childhood bipolar.

This is a pharmaceutical assault on America's kids, and yet it is nothing new. Paxil has been dosed out for ADHD boys who have "social anxiety" for years. I saw it happen to 2 boys in my daughter's class at age 11. One of them attempted suicide while on Paxil.[in 1999].

Academic psychiatry is going over the edge (!) and out of whack(!) as they increasingly act as shills for Pharma. What a tragedy to all that a group who once did honest work have now become complete sell-outs. I am reminded of the doctor at Harvard who is pushing "bipolar in children", a made-up condition meant to sell drugs.

Many people will do anything for a price. I hope the author of Study 329 pays a big price. Families have a right to be outraged whether their children have an actual "condition" or not, to be subjected to this twisted advertising campaign. I don't even wonder which Pharmas paid for it - all Pharmas think alike and have totally debased themselves.

Sorry to add another comment, but I have a strong opinion as usual. I feel Koplewicz is a menace to society along the same line as Fuller Torrey.

Discussing depression in kids: he appears to lump depression, autism and music prodigy together as DNA blips.

"As rare as it is, there is a group of school-aged kids -- and even a few preschoolers -- who do experience full-blown depressive episodes," Koplewicz says. "It is one of those times where it is not a parent or an environment that has done this. It is a predisposition, the same way some kids have autism or learning disabilities or a full-blown gift for music at age 5 or 6. It is purely a DNA blip."

--Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, founder and director of the New York University Child Study Center

Childhood Depression: What It Looks Like, What To Do.

So, there are DNA "blips" that need psych meds, and he is excited about his ADHD campaign--this is just outrageous shit.

This was the comment I posted to the NYTs:
Dr. Koplewicz is a co-author of one of the most infamous studies in medicine - study 329 - which stated that Paxil was an appropriate medicine for children diagnosed with depression. While the academicians were telling practioners that Paxil was safe, Glaxo Smith Kline was acknowledging problems with the drug in their internal documents. David Healy has said this trial is "a landmark for the point at which science turned into marketing" and is the greatest known divide in medicine between the raw data and the published literature. The question for the Times and other reporters is why do they still use Dr. Koplewicz as a scientific source? At the least, the next time one of the authors of Study 329 is interviewed, the first questions should be about study 329. -Jon Leo

Oh man. They speak as if there IS an effective treatment for mental illness/disabilities/whatever you want to call them. I certainly cannot think of anyone I know who's gotten better. Most of us learn how to manage things and muddle along as best we can.

If there really WAS a ransom I could pay to be rid of my own personal mental illness (what some call complex PTSD and related depression), I would happily pay it. Instead, I get to pay a friggin' 150-200 bucks an hour to be patronized by some pdoc a**hole who wants to drug the crap out of me. Nobody's time is worth that, IMO. I wouldn't pay $150 an hour to see god.

But wait. Did I mention my own illness was entiretly PREVENTABLE??? It was caused by childhood abuse, well documented. And can someone explain to me why all these bright lights NEVER mention the possibility that some of these kids they're so busily diagnosing and "treating" are nervous wrecks because they live with random abuse? How about all those kids in foster care? And the homeless kids who live in chaos? Any chance a kinder, gentler, more stable environment might actually help them?

This stuff really makes me feel testy. Thanks for posting it.
Sherry

OK. My last observation on this.

It probably doesn't mean anything, particularly, but I couldn't help but notice, when I clicked through to Keller, Ryan, et al's abstract of the 329 paper, that Rosemary Oakes and James McCafferty are named as authors.

Oakes and McCafferty were, respectively, the SKB senior statistician, who crunched the numbers for Sally Laden to ghost write-up, and the SKB guy in charge of the US Paxil Phase 4 clinical trials. Sally Laden, sadly, did not get to put this on her CV, despite having written it. I imagine that everybody else did, though. Marty had it on his, when last I looked (his homepage at Brown University is a broken link, which is a relatively recent thing, so I can't provide you with that - it used to be on about line 120 of the papers that "he'd" written!).

Matt

One more thought. I noticed in the Child Study material photos of their annual "do". Among those present were Katy Couric and Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton. I think these celebrities should be contacted and urged to get Dr. I am so important Koplewicz to get rid of this stuff. NOW. He is currently beaming at the (negative) attention he has brought on himself and his clinic, not minding that thousands of parents are distraught, and to threaten his celebrity funding base might make him rip down all those inappropriate signs.

Here's a way to get rid of this campaign: call in the Scientoligists right now, they would have the best platform for anti psychiatry they ever dreamed about, Travolta and Cruise have kids. Right?

Too little too late?
It took Harold Koplewicz too long to realize that hurting people you want to “help” is not acceptable collateral damage. We should write these officials to thank them for pulling the ads and request that they keep an eye on Dr. Koplewicz to make sure he doesn’t try anything this dirty again to drum up business in the name of public awareness:

Kenneth Langone, Board Chairman
New York University Medical Center
ken@invemed.com

Martin Lipton, Board of Trustee Chairman
New York University
mlipton@wlrk.com

John Sexton, President
New York University
john.sexton@nyu.edu

Robert Grossman, Dean & President
New York University Medical Center
robert.grossman@nyumc.org