Dr. David M. Allen's recent blog post entitled, "How to Recognize a Bad Psychiatrist," in Psychology today offers some advice, along with some astute and humorous observations about 'how psychiatry is done' by bad psychiatrists; this and a couple of blunt opinions, make it well worth the read. I am going to share what he had to say about bp magazine, because in this case, Dr. Allen shared information about the publication, and allows his readers to draw any conclusions.
Via Psychology Today:
Don’t Count Symptoms That Don’t Count
Published on April 16, 2012 by
David M. Allen, M.D. in
A Matter of Personality
AN EXCERPT:
I was not able to find much online about the publishers of this magazine, and what I found may be faulty, but apparently the publisher, Green Apple Courage Inc., was founded by one Bill MacPhee, a patient with
schizophrenia who was finally stabilized on
medication and became productive again.
The primary advertisers for BP Magazine were listed on one web site as "Platinum sponsor Pfizer Inc. and Gold sponsors Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. National mental health association advertisers include the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation, Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, Mental Health America and the National Alliance on Mental Illness."
I receive the magazine in the mail for free unsolicited, which usually means a pharmaceutical company is paying for producing a publication and distributing it to psychiatrists like me. Draw your own conclusion about whose interest the magazine might be best serving. (emphasis mine) read here