Furious Seasons

December 09, 2009

Sen. Grassley Goes After Dozens Of Medical Advocacy Groups

Earlier this year, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) demanded that the National Alliance on Mental Illness reveal details of its funding by pharma companies. Now, the senator has gone many steps further and has demanded similar disclosures from 32 medical advocacy groups and, drum roll, TeenScreen. Among the groups are DBSA, Mental Health America, Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Screening for Mental Health Inc. I congratulate Sen. Grassley and his staffer Paul Thacker for continuing to go after this issue.

If I can note this without sounding too self-congratulatory, it was yours truly who suggested to Thacker, after the blast of news around NAMI, that the senator also put similar requests to DBSA, MHA and CHADD. Not that that Thacker couldn't have figured it for himself.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at December 9, 2009 12:01 AM

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Comments

It would be great if the NY Times and other MSM publications could make note of this as well.

I totally support what Sen Grassley is doing in regards to mental health, but it would be great if Sen. Grassley could get some PR advice and stop acting like a loose cannon on other issues.

Posted by: Tony at December 8, 2009 11:44 PM

Go, Go, Grassley. I was familiar with "DMDA" from back in the early 90s, and was surprised to learn along the way that they morphed into "DBSA." I don't know the story, but my suspicion is that it had something to do wit the pharma-favored term "bipolar," as opposed to "manic depression." As I have said about NAMI, the LOCAL MDMA people can be wonderful, selfless saints and lifesavers. These existing groups are being corrupted from the top-down; the panoply of recently emerging imitation patient advocacy groups are just as manufactured as the pills, a model that has been used to promote pills in other disease conditions outside of mental health.

Posted by: medsvstherapy at December 9, 2009 11:16 AM

Finally a great news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Name them all!
I will see the links now.
Thank you Philip!
you made my day!

Posted by: Ana at December 9, 2009 12:46 PM