A Petition to NYT requesting an opportunity for Robert Whitaker to respond to Dr. Peter Kramer

Please sign the petition asking the New York Times to allow Robert Whitaker to respond to the op-ed piece it ran earlier this month written by Dr. Peter Kramer.   The petition was started by my friend, Susan Kingsley Smith, an advocate and activist.  Thank You! here

here is some background via madinamerica.com Robert Whitaker's website 

The New York Times’ Defense of Antidepressants

July 10, 2011

"Today, the New York Times published an op-ed essay by Peter Kramer titled "In Defense of Antidepressants" on the front page of its Sunday Review section.

In Anatomy of an Epidemic, I wrote about the need for our society to have an honest discussion about the merits of psychiatric medications, and in his essay, Dr. Kramer suggests that he took up his pen in response to recent "debunkings" of the drugs. In particular, he noted the "especially high-profile debunking" that occurred last month in the New York Review of Books when "Marcia Angell, former editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, favorably entertained the premise that ‘psychoactive drugs are useless.' " My book Anatomy of an Epidemic was one of three reviewed by Dr. Angell, and as I wrote in Anatomy, I think what our society desperately needs is an honest discussion about what science is telling us about the merits of psychiatric medications. As such, it seems worthwhile to look at Dr. Kramer's essay in that light.

Here is the question that we need to ask ourselves: Does the essay further public understanding of what science is telling us about the merits of antidepressants? Or does it rely on a misrepresentation of the science in order to protect the image of the drugs?" read the rest here.

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