The

The From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield. And I'm Brooke Gladstone. Generally,

journalists pay dearly for failing to disclose a conflict of interest. And the leading interest

that always poses a conflict is money. So, $1.3 million poses a lot of conflict. That's how much Dr. Fred Goodwin, host of the now-defunct

public radio show The Infinite Mind, has received in speaking fees from drug companies since the

year 2000. That's a heap of change not to disclose. The New York Times broke this story last week,

but this is not the first time Dr. Goodwin's financial ties

have been questioned. This past May, a piece in Slate, took serious issue with one particular

episode of the show. Today on the Infinite Mind, Prozac Nation revisited. In the wake of some recent

highly publicized acts of violence, and in the wake of an FDA warning about antidepressants and their link to so-called suicidality, a warning that may have backfired, we want to take a look at the science underlying the connection between antidepressants and out-of-control behavior.

The answer to that question, whether there's a link

between antidepressants and an increased risk of suicide turned out to be no. Dr. Goodwin

and his three guests agreed that the risks had been exaggerated, especially by the media.

In fact, they said, the real danger lay in not prescribing antidepressants.

It's something that can be overblown, and physicians will sometimes hesitate to utilize

these medications where they can be helpful to people.

That's Prozac Nation revisited, coming up today on the Infinite Mind.

As it happened, all three guests had some financial entanglements with the pharmaceutical

industry, and of course, so did Dr. Goodwin.

One guest was even paid directly by a major PR company for drug manufacturers, and the listeners

never knew.

It's not a fair fight for listeners.

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