Winter Fundraiser, An Early Start

I'm beginning this site's winter fundraiser a bit earlier than I'd originally planned for a couple of reasons. One, the last few fundraisers have taken longer than the two weeks or so of the glory day of 2007 and 2008, so this one will run longer but needs to be over by December 18th when I know folks will be well into their holiday travel and plans. Two, it absolutely feels like winter in Seattle the last few days what with cold winds and lots of rain and the dark coming on at 4.15 p.m.

Anyway, the overall goal for this fundraiser is $4,000 from 100 contributors over the next month, although the earlier contributions come in then the earlier I can end the fundraiser. As usual, the PayPal button is on the right. If you prefer using snail mail, shoot me an email and I'll send you my mailing address.

Of course, I know intimately just how rotten the economy is right now. So what have I been doing around here since September 1?

Here's a rundown of what I think was some pretty good work, much of it stuff that you won't find elsewhere in the mainstream media or elsewhere in the blogosphere.

In September, I reported on a child psych researcher who claimed 3-year-olds can have chronic depression had apparent unreported conflicts of interest in recent journal articles; I challenged the relevant journals to address the situation; the Archives of General Psychiatry later decided to investigate the matter while the American Journal of Psychiatry didn't respond; I wrote of an ignored study linking ADHD stimulants to risk of sudden death in kids and another study of the emotional blunting caused by SSRIs; that 60 percent of antipsychotic use in the VA system is off-label; that 2006's suicide rate remained unchanged from 2005's; that anti-depressants were again linked to some birth defects. In October, it was onto a study showing that the Mediterranean diet looked to be somewhat protective against depression (another study the media ignored); that a large percentage of cases of bipolar disorder "resolve spontaneously" by the mid-30s (another one the media went nowhere near); that Lilly is trialing its anti-depressant Cymbalta is kids as young as 7; AstraZeneca itself wrote me to defend its handling of Seroquel weight gain warnings; that Shire was trialing an ADHD stimulant as a depression treatment; I tackled NPR's recent biased reporting on mental health; revealed that Lexapro sales were boosted by the company selling anti-depressants to teens; wrote of an animal study showing that psych med use among young animals created psychiatric disorders in later life; wrote of a study (one the media picked up on) showing that atypicals are causing explosive weight gain in youths; revealed that the House health care reform bill had slipped the controversial MOTHERS Act into its language; called out NAMI National for lying in a letter to the New York Times. So far this month I've detailed yet another ignored study laying out depresson's link to processed food; wrote of a study where researchers shot down the existence of pre-adolescent mania; noted that Technorati ranked this blog way up in its Top 100 Health blogs; wrote of child psychiatrists allegedly behaving badly with children; wrote of a scary Yale study attempting to link ADHD in childhood to criminal behavior as an adult; wrote about absurd claims by the Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation that bedwetting and nightmares among young children constitute pediatric bipolar disorder symptoms; and there's more to come.

I don't think you'll find much of the above anywhere in the mainstream media, print or broadcast. If you'd like to support such work, I'd appreciate your support. Thanks.