OPINIONS
Xenia on "Pharma Industry":
Another controversy in the pharma sector is also arising around children bipolarity. Bipolar disorder (formerly called manic-depressive illness or manic depression) is a mental disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, concentration, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks. While in adults the course of bipolar disorder is characterized by discrete episodes of depression and mania, with euthymia or symptoms not reaching diagnostic criteria between them, in children and adolescents, very fast mood changes or even chronic symptoms are the norm.Pediatric bipolar disorder is commonly characterized by outbursts of anger, irritability and psychosis, rather than euphoric mania, which is more likely to be seen in adults. It was shown that many children with ADD, ADHD etc., in the USA were misdiagnosed with bipolarity. Moreover, independent investigations revealed a link between the pharmaceutical industry and the doyens of childhood bipolar disorder. San Francisco Chronicle, July 13th 2008: " The science of children's psychiatric medications is so primitive and Biederman's ( the chief of pediatric unit at Massachusetts General hospital) influence so great that when he merely mentions a drug during a presentation, tens of thousands of children within a year or two will end up taking that drug, or combination of drugs. This happens in the absence of a drug trial of any kind - instead, the decision is based upon word of mouth among the 7,000 child psychiatrists in America." In November 2008, Biederman was accused of conflict of interest when it was discovered that his unit had received funding from Jonson&Jonson, maker of the antipsychotic drug Risperdal, which is frequently given to children. Although the hospital denied the unit was promoting Jonson&Jonson products, the New York Times published excerpts of an internal document in which Biederman promised to try and 'move forward the commercial goals of J&J'. This way a complicated children's behavior was labeled a mental disorder and treated wrongly, which may have implied serious complications.