Dark Clouds over Toronto Psychiatry Research

Dark Clouds over University of Toronto Psychiatry Research

In the June issue of Nature Medicine there is a story of British Psychiatrist David Healy who accepted a joint faculty position at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, Canada, and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, only to have the roles declined to him on the basis of a single lecture he presented weeks later.

While senior faculty at CAMH maintain that the lecture contained a "...variety of extreme views based on extraordinary extrapolations and incompatibility with scientific evidence...which...shocked a large number of future colleagues to the point where they felt he did not have the respect and support of the staff," some, such as the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), are pointing to a conflict of interest with the center's pharmaceutical sponsors.

CAUT-an organization that represents 30,000 faculty across Canada-believes that Healy's academic freedom has been thwarted and quite simply, that his job offer was rescinded because his lecture was critical of the pharmaceutical industry.

What do you think?

Click here to read the transcript of Healy's lecture for yourself and then you can complete a survey being collected by the journal. The survey will be open for the next two months, and then a report will be issued to all participants reporting the outcome of the survey.

Click here for the Nature Medicine article.

Click here to fill out the survey.

Click here for more information and a web site devoted to this case.

Letter from Dr. David Healy to the Ethics committee of the CAMH regarding their withdrawal of his job offer.

Opinions expressed in this web site do not necessarily reflect the views of NAMI Santa Cruz County, NAMI California or any affiliated organizations. We attempt to present a balanced perspective on issues by presenting multiple viewpoints.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This may contain copyrighted (©) material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available to advance understanding of ecological, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.