Charlie “Bling Bling” Nemeroff

I see an interesting post over at CL Psych about Dr Charles Nemeroff.

CL Psych lists in detail some of Charlie’s career highlights – a couple of which I’ve copied below:

Lithium patch: In the same review article as mentioned above, Nemeroff mentioned that the lithium patch improved tolerability and compliance. So the patch made patients stick with treatment better and lowered the side effect burden. Oh, and Nemeroff did not cite a single source to back up these claims. Um, the entire point of a review article is to make claims and back them with sources. Nemeroff holds the patent for the lithium patch, by the way.

David Healy: According to some sources (not entirely confirmed, though I believe it), Nemeroff was part of the effort to get David Healy ousted from his position at the Univeristy of Toronto. It’s a long story, worth reading about herehere. As readers of my site know, I have cited Healy’s work here many times due to his close knowledge of data regarding psychiatric medications (particularly SSRI’s) — he’s a good scientist with, in my mind, a very strong conscience. If Nemeroff was involved in getting Healy’s position rescinded, then I say shame on him.

Much more about Nemeroff to follow…