Dan Carlat, psychiatrist and professional gadfly, is wasting no time getting smarmy on his new blog about CME foibles. Today, he unveils the first in a promised series of occasional pokes-in-the-eye to drugmakers, continuing medical ed companies and doctors. His goal? To recognize their “outstanding achievement in masking promotional activities under the guise of continuing medical education.”

The first lucky set of winners: Shire Pharmaceuticals; Haymarket Medical, a medical communications company; Massachusetts General Hospital Child Psychiatrists; and Boston University School of Medicine’s continuing medical ed department. They shared the winner’s circle for a series of newsletters insisting ADHD is underdiagnosed and that the meds are very effective. And though the newsletters are overseen by a special council of experts, Carlat alleges these may have been ghostwritten.

“None of these statements are lies, but, like most statements in the world of ADHD, they are partial truths. Many would argue that adult ADHD is over-diagnosed, and that stimulants are over-prescribed in the United States. But this is a view that is censured in these ACCME accredited CME activities…

“I suspect that the Shire Newsletter Blitz of 2007 will be viewed by historians as one of the more embarrassing collusions between psychiatric academia and the pharmaceutical industry,” he writes.

Congrats to all.