Big News About NAMI
Apr 15 2009 | Comments 3
Thanks to Ellen for sending me the news that Sen. Grassley is investigating NAMI’s funding. (I’m late to this party, I’m aware.) I know NAMI does a lot of good, of course, but there have long been concerns from people on the ground about their complicity with Big Pharma (Disclosure of Grants and Contributions Funded by Lilly; AstraZeneca contributions report) We’ll see what Grassley turns up.
Grassley Probes Financing of Advocacy Group for Mental Health
liz | 10:07 AM | BIG PHARMA
It’s good that exposure is given to pharma grants to NAMI, but we need to realize it takes money to run an organization and pharma has lots of it. Some argue that NAMI promotes medications in the treatment of mental illness; some find this “scandalous”. Those people seem to neglect that the vast amount of scientific evidence (some pharma supported, the rest govt funded) shows that medicines are the most effective (so it is no wonder NAMI provides information about them). I am a little tired with the anti-meds folks who harp on about the wonders of talk therapy. But, again the evidence, when talk therapies are compared to medicines or placebos by the very people promoting them, they often don’t perform better than medicine or placebo. But people keep blabbering on about how talk therapy solves “everything” and is “safe”. If it is so “safe”, why do people become dangerously dependent on it and what about those who through suggestion believe in things that never had happened (satanic abuse or abduction by aliens, to name a few of the more outrageous ones). In defense of NAMI, they promote both medicine and talk therapy. With either, it is caveat emptor. It is best to be as informed as possible about any treatment. NAMI happens to be a good place to start.
An Open Letter to Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa
Dear Senator Grassley,
Thank you for investigating NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness).
Please investigate Mental Health America, CHADD, TeenScreen, and National Depression Screening Day too. They’re drug industry front groups just like NAMI.
Sincerely,
The entire staff at the Institute for Nearly Genuine Research
http://www.bonkersinstitute.org/mha.html
It’s also interesting to note that in 2008, Senator Grassley accepted a million dollars from the health and pharmaceutical industry. I have sent him a letter asking for who gave what, but of course, I have received no response. The figures were supplied by opensecret.com
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