Welcome to a Non-Commercially Biased Psychiatry Newsletter

I had the pleasure recently of hearing from Daniel Carlat, MD, assistant clinical professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University. who describes himself as "a former drug company speaker who 'converted' in 2002." He's now the editor of The Carlat Psychiatry Report, a non-commercially-biased monthly newsletter:

www.thecarlatreport.com

As best as this family physician can tell, the newsletter looks like a very good source of thoughtful apprasial of psychiatric medications, and a potential corrective for marketing hype in a specialty that seems to attract more than its share.

A Doctor Takes his Camera to the Medical Conference

In HOOKED, Chapter 11 I offer the reader a sort of guided tour of the pharamceutical exhibits at a major medical conference--in that case, the Berlin Psychiatric Congress. Staying a bit closer to home, "Kevin, MD," a practicing primary care physician, has collected a photo collage of the exhibit hall of a U.S. primary care conference, "Pri-Med". Check it out on his blog-site:

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2006/10/how-to-get-doctors-attention-or-how.html

Be sure to read the comments-- they are very insightful. Especially one commenting that the surgeons, at their conferences, have MUCH more professional looking sales folks selling them stuff, and none of this carnival-sideshow stuff.