Nemeroff Steps Down As Emory Psychiatry Chair
28 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // October 3rd, 2008 // 11:17 pm
The move by well-known psychiatrist Charles Nemeroff comes in response to the investigation by the Senate Finance Committee into allegations of undisclosed conflicts of interest, according to an e-mail written by Claudia Adkison, an Emory University associate dean.
At issue is whether universities are adequately policing disclosures in an effort to maintain scientific integrity and objectivity. The committee is investigating up to 30 academic psychiatrists who allegedly accepted grants from the NIH and pharma, but failed to properly report payments, which universities are required to monitor. The NIH is being leaned on to yank grants when disclosure is inadequate.
So far, the committee has singled out Stanford University’s Alan Schatzberg, Harvard University’s Joe Biederman, Brown University’s Martin Keller, University of Texas’ Karen Wagner and John Rush, and Melissa DelBello at the University of Cincinnati. The back story on Nemeroff can be read here, here and here. This is Adkison’s e-mail….
From: cadkison@emory.edu
Subject: Announcement re Sen. Grassley’s allegations about Dr. Nemeroff
Date: October 3, 2008 9:05:01 PM EDT
To: Medicine-Faculty@EMORY.EDU
Reply-To: cadkison@emory.edu
Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) has raised a number of questions about whether Emory’s chairman of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Dr. Charles Nemeroff, has properly disclosed his financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies. We at Emory take this matter very seriously and are working diligently to determine whether our policies have been observed consistently with regard to the matters cited by Senator Grassley.
In view of the ongoing internal and external investigations into these allegations, Dr. Nemeroff will voluntarily step down as chairman of the department, effective immediately, pending resolution of these issues.
Dr. Nemeroff is recognized internationally as a leader in psychiatric research, education and practice. He has made fundamental contributions to the field over many years. The length and complexity of the history outlined by Senator Grassley will require careful review of underlying payment records from the pharmaceutical companies, which we have requested from Senator Grassley’s office. We have also requested that Dr. Nemeroff provide us with relevant information and documentation so that we will have all the facts before us.
Dr. Nemeroff has assured us that: “To the best of my knowledge, I have followed the appropriate University regulations concerning financial disclosures. I have dedicated my career to translating research findings into improvements in clinical practice in patients with severe mental illness. I will cooperate fully and work with Emory to respond to the alleged conflicts of interest issues raised by Senator Grassley and his staff.”
Emory is committed to maintaining strong conflict of interest policies and procedures and will conduct a fair, thorough, and evenhanded investigation of these claims.
* Medicine-Faculty Web Page:
http://WWW.LISTSERV.Emory.Edu/Archives/Medicine-Faculty.HTML
Justice in MI
As suggested in the other thread down on this, burying Nemeroff will not bury the problem. But that is often a university’s first instinct.
Jay McMahon
Too bad the legacy ends on this note.
barbou
Too bad the legacy ends on this note.
What legacy?How long has his dishonesty influenced his actions and words.
They should all be fed the poisons they have been fostering upon the innocent.Especially Bidderman,his actions have been disgusting and criminal affecting countless thousands of children.
Jay McMahon
Barbou, you are correct. Was trying to be kind.
Am reminded of the real wizard in Wizard of Oz.
Garden variety narcissist.
keeping them honest
What legacy? There is a legacy of relentless self-promotion by an operator who is known as the Tom DeLay of psychiatry, but who can name one genuine scientific advance that made a shred of difference to the care of patients? What legacy, indeed?
Jay McMahon
“Dr. Nemeroff has assured us that: “To the best of my knowledge, I have followed the appropriate University regulations concerning financial disclosures.”
=================================
Still doesn’t get it, does he.
He views the situation as “Hey - I DID color inside the lines.”
Devoid of ethics.
laurie
A good start! Hopefully this is the beginning of what should have happened years ago.
CarlS
Charles Nemeroff is shown to be a pathological liar. Everything he has ever written is suspect. He needs a psychiatrist.
JoeW
“Science” by grants is not even remotely what the public thinks it is.
It is easier to predict with certitude that “conflict of interest” will occur than that the so-called “results” will be reliable. This is not science – and it’s very dangerous.
This reminds me of another “venerable” institution that was flushed with cash, the “Tobacco Institute”.
EMC
None of the men that Senator Grassley’s committee cites have contributed to society in a manner akin to, say, Freud, Banting, Fleming, or Salk. They neither discovered drugs nor life-enhancing therapeutic modalities. Rather, they built administrative empires centering on publications, clinical trials, and marketing. In so doing, they enriched both themselves and their universities. What they did not do, however, was “contribute to science.” To suggest that any of these men have legacies that are now in jeopardy is absurd, unless, of course, your referring to their records as self-promoting, self-enriching, entrepreneurs.
truthman30
Is it just me or does anyone else think Mr Nemeroff look like a used car sales man from the 80’s in the picture there….
Basking
The statement “Dr. Nemeroff has assured us that: “To the best of my knowledge, I have followed the appropriate University regulations concerning financial disclosures.” raises the question about what kind of liar he really is. What else has he lied about? Study results maybe?
Justice in MI
T’man - Unfair to used care salespeople from 80s.
Deborah B
Nemeroff reminds me of the sort of academic I used to work with at a major research university. They’re ALWAYS right….even when they’re wrong. They are primarily roused to action when it involves their own self-promotion…. and publications… and, oh yes, their research is almost never directed at providing a CURE, or even a slight increase in quality of life…they prefer to work on issues much more esoteric than that. They prefer to alter the truth; or minimally, displace it.
Unfortunately, it’s unclear whether Emory has the intestinal fortitude to actually address the non-compliance. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds, and what Nemeroff’s professional capacities will be later this winter.
D Bunker
Give Chucky 5 months Tops, & he’ll surface on the Boards of a Half Dozen Drug Cos. & Universities collecting his $$, just like former FDA Commish Jane Henney,[AstraZeneca Board] and Surgeon General Dave Satcher [J&J Board] who told America that 1 in 5 are affected by “Mental Health” issues.
Christ what a crock of green backed flannel speak.
Ed; Is there Any law that can be invoked for skyrocketing through the NIH 10K COI ceiling?
Clay Terry
Have any of you dedicated Charles Nemeroff bashers ever spent 20 years struggling with debilitating depression, going to doctors, counselors, and therapists, yet never finding relief from the abject misery that is chronic depression? Well, I did, and within 4 weeks of my first visit to Dr. Nemeroff in 1994, I felt better than I had for 2 decades and have been able to stay alive, mentally healthy, and relatively happy from that point on, thanks to his amazing ability to successfully diagnose and treat the absolute worst cases of depression. I and many other folks (like former head of CNN Tom Johnson) are alive and well today thanks to Dr. Nemeroff’s dedication to bringing mental health issues out of the closet and into the 21st century, where he and others like him work continuously to improve the treatments available for the millions of people who suffer from serious mental health issues. You are ever so willing to rip into a man that you obviously don’t know and act as judge and jury without giving a thought to all the lives that have been dramatically improved by Dr. Nemeroff’s treatments. When all is said and done, I doubt that any of you will ever make a fraction of the postive impact on peoples’ well-being that Dr. Nemeroff has already made. Why don’t you folks go get a life or two and concentrate on the legacy you will leave for future generations………..unless, of course, you are already operating at your highest level of achievement and have nothing better to offer.
Clay Terry
harpy
I don’t believe anyone said he wasn’t a good doctor, simply that he is corrupt. One can be both.
Clay Terry
Yes, Harpy, if you read all of the comments above, there are various extremely derogatory comments concerning Dr. Nemeroff’s capabilities (namely the lack thereof)in his work as a psychiatrist, scientist, and researcher; his lack of any kind of legacy concerning the treatment of mental health problems/illnesses; even the statement that “everything he has ever written is suspect”; and the dismissal of his years of helping those with serious mental health issues as the building of ” empires for self-enrichment centered on publications, clinical trials and marketing.” How about “What else has he lied about? Study results maybe?” Or (referring to Dr. Nemeroff and others that are deemed to be like him) “they prefer to alter the truth”.
I may suffer from depression so serious that I have to be on medication in order to live a “normal” life, but that doesn’t mean I am lacking in intelligence or perceptiveness. The comments in this blog in no way acknowledge that Charlie Nemeroff is even a doctor, much less a good one; rather, he is “devoid of ethics” and “a pathological liar” and what he does “is not science and it’s very dangerous”. No, Harpy, I don’t believe that one can be a good doctor and be corrupt. In my book, being a practicing “good doctor” (or in the case of Dr. Nemeroff, an outstanding doctor and healer)means being a person who takes the Hippocratic Oath seriously and maintains strict ethical standards. That definition definitely does NOT include someone who is corrupt.
Now I will leave all you folks who seem to have no life except for bashing others and go back to my life, which thankfully is busy enough to preclude devoting my days to nasty, negative rants on blog sites.
Clay Terry
Justice in MI
Probably to late to reach Clay, but I will try.
I acknowledge one cheap shot, but my emphasis has been on the universities (especially in other threads on this), not Dr. N.
As for being both corrupt and extraordinarily talented, we see it all the time, in every field - government, sports, business, medicine, and everything else. There is nothing new there, Hippocrates notwithstanding.
truthman30
You are ever so willing to rip into a man that you obviously don’t know and act as judge and jury without giving a thought to all the lives that have been dramatically improved by Dr. Nemeroff’s treatments. When all is said and done, I doubt that any of you will ever make a fraction of the postive impact on peoples’ well-being that Dr. Nemeroff has already made. Why don’t you folks go get a life or two and concentrate on the legacy you will leave for future generations………..unless, of course, you are already operating at your highest level of achievement and have nothing better to offer.
Clay Terry
With all due respect Clay..
Advocating drug treatments from lucrative contracts with pharmaceutical companies is hardly a worthy legacy to leave behind..
And yes, I have suffered from depression, it is an awful thing of course, no one is disputing that , but drug treatments like the SSRI class are known to cause many more problems than they help…
These drugs were never the solution , and it is pharmaceutical funded biological psychiatry that has in fact hindered the understanding of depression not helped it.
JoeW
1) In my comment, I never mentioned anyone. I don’t know this person being investigated for conflict of interest.
2) As for blogging:
“All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.” - Edmund Burke
Are we to live in a society where anything goes - except for free speech?
What would Thomas Jefferson prefer? Public apathy?
k
Nemeroff did good research, gives fabulous great talks and is very charming.I suspect he is a really wonderful guy and a good doctor; but this is the issue, we need to have absurdly strict guidelines or reallly good and great people get corrupted.
Look at our government officials.
No one who is a professor, head of department, on a P and T committee, deal with formularies, medical journalist, on an editorial board should take any money from drug companies. NONE. NO lunch, no dinner, nothing, unrestricted grants maybe, but NO other contact. NO ad boards ( what a joke they are)
The evidence is that chicken dinners and lunches influence us, money from companies seem to influence outcomes of double blind studies, do you think all that adulation of being flown everywhere, wined and dined at Ad board meeting does not influence you more? Everyone is doing it which makes it seem normal.
My Nemeroff story, ( i am a psychiatrist). I went to a meeting in NY a couple of years ago. Nemeroff gave a great talk. One of the things he mentioned was how he thinks we need to work more with the drug companies. He was challenged after the talk that he used generic names for all drugs except” paxil” ( he has done a lot of work on that drug paid for by the drug company). It was likely not intentional, but the claim was true. Nemeroff got very angry, said some silly thing like people don’t know the generic names ( this was at conference of specialists, that all would know the generic names) and the discussion was closed down.
I suspect Nemeroff did not report this money, because he was sure the rules were stupid and that he was too smart to be influenced. I bet you re reported it to the tax guys.
Look, i am guilty of all of talks, dinners, adboards, but I am convinced if medicine wants to be a glorious profession, we need to stop this, We also need the government and charities to give scientists grants or no research will happen. I have stopped this and am trying to influence my friends/trainees to do the same; their response, “i am not influenced”.
Clay Terry
Oh, goody…………..someone finally decided to say a kind word about Charlie Nemeroff! Thanks, “K”, for actually writing a rational, reasonable response to the whole mess and not taking cheap shots at Dr. N.
As for the rest of you…….the less said the better. What would Thomas Jefferson prefer, Joe W? Well, he sure wasn’t much into speaking out and telling the unvarnished truth when it came to his relationship and resulting children with his slave mistress Sally Hemmings, now was he? Maybe Mr. Jefferson would have preferred that he not be judged harshly by folks who didn’t even know him and who chose to act as jury, judge, and executioner based on one-sided news reports. Maybe he would have liked the idea of being considered innocent until proven guilty….and I’m certain he wouldn’t have thought it was fair to have everything from his appearance to his ethics denigrated in derogatory messages sent by folks who, except for Jay MaMahon, don’t even sign both their first and last names to their messages.
Clay Terry
TayClerry
Tay: tell us exactly what Nemeroff did to resolve your problems. I believe he caused great harm to others under the guise of helpful research. There are pages and pages of evidence making the case that he is, and that he has done dastardly things. For starters, he was heavily involved in ignoring / masking the suicide side effects of antidepressants until, finally, the evidence was so staggering that the FDA put the black box warnings on SSRIs.
You discovered a doc that was able to provide treatment for your depression.
Please, at this moment, as we all finally discover what we suspect and/or know has been ungoing, extensive corruption, please tell us the miracles worked by Dr. Nemeroff on your behalf.
But first: let me make this note: it is no amazing feat to make a diagnosis of depression: many of us are able to detect depression day in and day out. If any mental health clinician cannot detect depression, then it is time to get some non-Pharma-sponsored CME and get some book-larnin’. Depression is often referred to as the ‘common cold’ of psychiatry. Therefore, to have a doc diagnose a case of depression is not a big deal. Second: what amazing treatment did he offer? Docs across the nation routinely start with an SSRI. Many are comfortable in switching to any one of several meds if the first does not work. Docs are also very familiar with augmenting and/or doing some polypharmacy, however you want to describe it.
This is no magic. It is bread and butter of depression treatment. So, bottom line: many of us are familiar with mental health, treatment, and science. To you, as a person with depression, I understand that the guy who brought you some cure is a great guy, in your eyes. But chances are he was just a doc doing his job. Unless you can share something here that will reveal some magic done by the doc.
Did he augment with some samE? Did he do some Reiki? Please tell us so we can know what insight he had that was so different from mainstream psychiatry, as you have asserted. Otherwise the rest of us will carry on with our grateful amazement that for once a top-level conniver swindler con artist has been caught.
Clay Terry
My name is Clay Terry, not Tay Clerry, although I actually quite like what you did with my name. I did not see where you had signed your name, so I guess you might be one of the bloggers who doesn’t feel that signing your full name to your statements is of any importance. As for what Charlie Nemeroff did to help me and all the other folks whose lives he has saved and then turned around, the answer is simple: He was able to reach us when no one else could and convince us that our depression could and would abate and that we would actually have lives worth living. No, he did not augment with “some samE” or “do some Reiki”; he used his standard treatment that involves talk therapy, the appropriate prescription drug (yes,sometimes it takes trying a few to hit the right one)and the patient’s willingness to tackle his/her depression. What he has that none of the other doctors, therapists, or counselors I saw in my first 20 years of seeking treatment is an astounding ability to “connect” with the most depressed and/or disturbed individuals and help them turn their lives around. He has done this with countless patients who, like me, have spent years trying (and failing) to get the help that will enable us to deal successfully with our mental health problems. As you said, diagnosing depression and then prescribing a drug to treat it is something psychiatrists, internists, and even GPs do every day, or as you put it ,”just a doc doing his job.” The striking thing about dealing with Charlie Nemeroff is that his patients DON’T feel he’s “just a doc doing his job”. We feel that he is someone who actually connects with us in our darkest hours and guides us out of the abyss and into a position where we can reclaim our lives. The other thing he does is that he never, ever disconnects with a patient; he is always there for his patients, even when it involves answering his phone in the middle of the night. My Effexor is great, but it is no substitute for being able to speak to a caring, competent professional who can ease a very troubled mind and help one learn to live an enjoyable and productive life.
In short (ha! not one of my strong points), I believe there are plenty of competent doctors just doing there jobs and then there are the few phenomenal healers who regularly and successfully deal with the absolute worst cases within their specialty. Charlie Nemeroff is among the latter. While you view him as a “top-level conniver swindler con artist” (seems like you harbor a mighty deep dislike, verging on hatred, for Dr. N…..have you considered therapy to help you deal with these feelings??), I and the countless other folks he has helped view him as the “doc of last resort” for resolving our debilitating mental health issues. Is it too much for those of you who are competent doctors/therapists to acknowledge that there are a few exceptionally gifted healers who can help the seemingly hopeless cases?
Regardless, my short-lived venture into blogging has been interesting, informative, and invigorating! I don’t have the time to be a regular blogger, but congratulations to those of you who do.
Clay Terry aka Tay Clerry
harpy
“No, Harpy, I don’t believe that one can be a good doctor and be corrupt. In my book, being a practicing “good doctor” (or in the case of Dr. Nemeroff, an outstanding doctor and healer)means being a person who takes the Hippocratic Oath seriously and maintains strict ethical standards. That definition definitely does NOT include someone who is corrupt.”
Then I can understand why this overwhelming evidence must be very hard for you. However, you may need to expand your definitions. For your sake, I hope he doesn’t stop practicing.
Clay Terry
Harpy, it’s not for my sake that Charlie Nemeroff should continue practicing. He has helped me deal with my depression and I have been able to live a reasonably happy and productive life for years now. The reason you and others should hope he doesn’t stop practicing is so that he can continue to help the countless folks who suffer from debilitating depression and/or other devastating mental health issues and have so far not found a doctor and a treatment that enables them to cope.
As for the “overwhelming evidence”…..overwhelming to whom? Not to me. Just because Sen. Grassley issues statements and publishes what he says is proof of Dr. N’s perfidy doesn’t mean I buy into his accusations, much less find myself overwhelmed by them. I am not appointing myself jury, judge, and executioner; instead, I prefer to wait until both sides have presented all their evidence, had it minutely examined and evaluated, and only then will I reach my decision on Dr. N’s financial dealings.
And as for “expanding my definitions” : Nope, I value high standards, sound ethics, and solid character, and if the time comes when I can’t find a skilled physician who also meets these criteria, then I’ll know it’s time to stop going to doctors.
Finally, I just have to ask: Why do folks like you and all the other bloggers on this site, except for Jay McMahon, choose not to sign off with your first and last names? I only belong to one webring, but we sign our names when we send in our posts and do not obscure our identities with initials, partial names, or “nicknames”. Why won’t you and the others stand up (so to speak), speak your piece, and sign your correct name to it?
Clay Terry
Shariles
Otay Clay! sounds like you’re a classic case of too many or not enough drugs.
For a newbie ‘too busy for the boards’ you seem to be practiced in the obvious ways of the debunkers aka trolls.
You shouldn’t have any trouble connecting with Precious, he voluntarily stepped down-more time to spend with his family and his patients he practices on/with.