Dr.John Nardo, Letter to Editor: Miami Herald-- Dr.Charles Nemeroff--U of Miami's bad hire

Former faculty member, Department of Psychiatry at Emory University, former colleague of Charles Nemeroff, writes letter to the Editor of the Miami Herald

Miami Herald, Letters to Editor:

"UM's bad hire

Re the June 10 story Senator tells UM he's `troubled' over hiring: The University of Miami has hired a chairman for the Department of Psychiatry, Dr. Charles Nemeroff, who has become the poster child for what's wrong with academic medicine in our country.

Nemeroff was relieved of his chairmanship at Emory University in Atlanta for failing to disclose conflicts of interest in his publications and presentations. That means that he was a well-paid frontman for a number of drug manufacturers.

Now it has been revealed that many of his articles were ghost-written by the drug companies and that he recommended a drug, Paxil, as safe for pregnant women when, in fact, it can cause congenital heart defects in newborns.

One has to wonder what the people at UM are thinking? Or if they're thinking at all?

JOHN NARDO, former faculty member, Department of Psychiatry, Emory University Jasper, Ga."


Dr.Nardo is referencing this article, from June 10, 2010 in the Miami Herald:


Senator tells University of Miami he's `troubled' over hiring

"Sen. Charles Grassley has written a strongly worded letter to University of Miami President Donna Shalala saying he is ``disturbed'' and ``troubled'' by actions surrounding UM's hiring of a psychiatrist-researcher under investigation by a federal agency."

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Find more comments from Dr. John Nardo

HERE, in the comment section at Dr.Daniel Carlat's blog article:

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Uh Oh! Thomas Insel gets pulled into Nemeroff's World


John M. Nardo MD said...

"Here in Atlanta where Dr. Nemeroff rose to stardom, it's as if he was really never here in the first place. Those of us on the clinical faculty still do what we did 20 years ago, before he came. I try to recall something I learned from him during his tenure, but nothing comes to mind. The saddest part of this saga is that it was all much ado about nothing, yet it did a great deal of damage to our profession and our patients - as you have quoted, changing us from "brainless to mindless." At issue, having lost our minds, how do we get them back?"
June 17, 2010 4:57 PM

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I commend Dr.Nardo for writing the letter to the Miami Herald, and for speaking up about Nemeroff honestly without concern of reproach from his former colleague.

Find more from Dr.Nardo

HERE in the comment section of Pharmalot:

"If Insel were right-thinking about conflicts of interest, he would have already removed himself, but he’s not, raising the question about how much he ought to be removed from [as in the NIMH altogether]…"