Radio Host Has Drug Company Ties, Drug Companies Supress the Knowledge that autism schizophrenia and bipolar are caused de novo by older fathers

Radio Host Has Drug Company Ties

By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: November 21, 2008
An influential psychiatrist who was the host of the popular NPR program “The Infinite Mind” earned at least $1.3 million from 2000 to 2007 giving marketing lectures for drugmakers, income not mentioned on the program.

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Don Hogan Charles/The New York Times
Dr. Frederick K. Goodwin in 2001 during taping of “The Infinite Mind,” his public radio program.

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Conflicts of Interest May Ensnare Journalists, Too (November 22, 2008) The psychiatrist and radio host, Dr. Frederick K. Goodwin, is the latest in a series of doctors and researchers whose ties to drugmakers have been uncovered by Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa. Dr. Goodwin, a former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, is the first news media figure to be investigated.

Dr. Goodwin’s weekly radio programs have often touched on subjects important to the commercial interests of the companies for which he consults. In a program broadcast on Sept. 20, 2005, he warned that children with bipolar disorder who were left untreated could suffer brain damage, a controversial view.

“But as we’ll be hearing today,” Dr. Goodwin told his audience, “modern treatments — mood stabilizers in particular — have been proven both safe and effective in bipolar children.”