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| Prof Ian Hickie |
Patrick McGorry's sidekick, Prof Ian Hickie, has come out fighting this week with an opinion piece that was published on the Sydney Morning Herald website.
One would have thought that Hickie, who I have highlighted before on this blog, [Back story] would have used the Sydney Morning Herald as a platform to show evidence that the DeLorean Machine [The Early Intervention Program] was fool proof and robust.
Instead, Hickie chose to slam his critics...and he did so in the style and ahem, candour, that anyone who opposes his fairy tale theories would expect.
Here's a snippet:
...an odd mix of armchair critics, conspiracy theorists and a former chairman of the American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual taskforce, Dr Allen Frances, oppose the expansion of early intervention programs for teenagers and young adults. Conversely, child advocates have attacked the proposed reforms for putting too little emphasis on the expansion of specialised child services.
In parallel, the Scientologists have repeatedly used freedom of information legislation to mount an ''investigation'' into the work of McGorry, our colleagues and myself. Various members of these groups have made highly personal ''conflict of interest'' allegations in an attempt to distract attention from the evidence that favours these new approaches.
Way to go Hickie!
When all else fails shout conspiracy or Scientology. One would have thought psychiatrists and professors would have devised a better argument after all these years. Amazing isn't it, they can pluck an "illness" out of thin air yet call them to task over it and you are labelled an armchair critic, conspiracy theorist or Scientologist.
These guys just love their labels eh.
Ian Hickie was the inaugural CEO (2000-2003) of 'beyondblue: the national depression initiative', which has very successfully sold depression in Australia, with many millions of dollars of government money. This has worked brilliantly for the drug companies, and beyondblue does not accept pharma funding, so the drug companies get the promotion for free. I've previously wrote about beyondblue back in November 2008.
Beyondblue and Hickie paved the way for EPPIC, a psychiatric service aimed at addressing the needs of older adolescents and young adults with emerging psychotic disorders.
Hickie and McGorry had already been working together for several years, in fact Hickie is a key player in McGorry's 'Headspace'.
The PDF above is a seemingly egregious example of the conflicts of interests that exist: a whole journal supplement based on the SPHERE project clinical audit. The audit was funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb (see p. S54), the manufacturer of Serzone. The publication of the supplement was funded by beyondblue with Commonwealth [Australian] Government money (see title page).
The audit, which used Hickie's SPHERE questionnaire, found ridiculously high rates of mental disorders. This was reported in the supplement by Hickie, Davenport, Naismith, & Scott (2001, p. 52) as:
'Sixty-three per cent of people attending general practice have some evidence of mental disorder (including alcohol or other substance misuse) by self-report or GP's diagnosis of psychological difficulties.'
63%?
That's some cash cow huh?
Not surprisingly, if you scroll to the bottom of the PDF you will find: Source: Hickie et al. Educational Health Solutions; 2000
As long as the DeLorean Mob continue to berate their critics with name-calling, their critics will continue to press for the science behind their theories.
To be honest, any name-calling aimed in my direction really is water off a duck's back. It just highlights the inability of the other side to prove their point and shows them to be straw clutchers. It's just their way of stifling voices.
I'm reminded of my childhood days:
Scene: Early 70's School playground, me eating a packet of crisps.
CLASSMATE: Give me a crisp Fid.
ME: No.
CLASSMATE: You big gay!
Some things just never change.
Related posts: -
Hickierie Dickory Doc - McGorry Turns Back the Clock
33 year old mother slams Hickie
This one is especially for Ian Hickie and his DeLorean mob:
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