Killer Bees and their attack on Pediatric Bipolar Disorder

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by Marcie Lipsitt
Saturday, April 04, 2009

Quinn Bradlee's father, Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post, has said that no entity does investigative reporting better than newspapers.  He has defined "investigative reporting" as a "reporter or editor who gets a bee in his bonnet and decides to look into something in a major way." 

I would agree with Mr. Bradlee that a host of investigative reports have led to the downfall of criminals of all colors and professions, and even a President of the United States.  Still, there have been abuses of journalistic power and the "bee" is only a lethal sting to the hearts, souls and careers of the innocent. 

I am writing today because I am witnessing investigative reporting at its most abusive.  Reporters that in my opinion have violated all standards of ethical reporting; an attack of killer bees that include; Gardiner Harris, Benedict Carey and the editorial board of the New York Times and U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa).   Their attack is horrifying, egregious and it must be stopped.

How many of you know what it is like to watch your child attacked on a daily basis and your hero vilified by the news media and misguided politicians and bureaucrats?  Dr. Joseph Biederman and pediatric bipolar disorder are under just such an attack.  I am frightened. I am angry and I will not be silent. 

For more than two years the New York Times through the mediocre writing skills of

Benedict Carey and Gardiner Harris, has been fueling the controversy surrounding pediatric bipolar disorder.  They have gleefully misreported information pertaining to accusations of conflicts of interest, unreported income, misrepresentations of research and a promotion of antipsychotic drugs, leveled at Drs. Joseph Biederman, Thomas Spencer and Timothy Wilens.   For the past several years these writers have attacked virtually nothing but psychiatry and primarily pediatric psychiatry and bipolar disorder in children.

I have read with awe, the audacity of the New York Times as they have successfully created the mystique that only psychiatrists sit on pharmaceutical advisory panels and are paid honorariums for speaking engagements. 

Gardiner Harris and Benedict Carey have shown an unjournalistic-like bias against the use of atypical antipsychotics for the treatment of only pediatric bipolar.   They have repeatedly highlighted in article-after-article the side effects of atypical antipsychotics to make it appear these are the only medications that have side effects. 

Does anyone know an individual that has enjoyed chemotherapy or radiation treatment?  Children who undergo radiation for brain tumors are likely to develop learning disabilities.  Do we not radiate and then put on the child's tombstone; "Thank goodness Johnny didn't die with a learning disability?"  And, if the antipsychotics have side effects for children with bipolar disorder, does that mean they would suffer no such side effects for the treatment of schizophrenia, autism or AD/HD?  Systemic steroids anyone...Boy, there's a boatload of troubling side effects!