About Us
The Carlat Psychiatry Report (TCPR) is an eight-page monthly newsletter (in both print and online form) that provides clinically relevant, unbiased information on psychiatric practice. We receive no corporate funding, which allows a clear-eyed evaluation of all available treatments. A typical issue (view sample issue) provides:
* A concise review of a current topic of interest (view past topics)
* An evaluation of treatment options, including prescription medications, OTCs, and psychotherapies
* An in-depth interview with a national expert on the issues topic
* Summaries of the most crucial research findings of the past month
* An intriguing snippet from the past ("Tales from the History of Psychiatry")
As a subscriber, you will be mailed the printed newsletter each month, and you will have full access to our web site, which allows you to:
* Read and download the current newsletter before your printed copy arrives
* Search the entire web site for topics of interest
* Read and download any past issue from the archives
* Download concise medication fact sheets with practical pearls (sample)
A regular one-year subscription, including both the printed newsletter and online access, is $109.
History
The Carlat Psychiatry Report (TCPR) was founded in January of 2003 as an alternative to existing journals and newsletters that receive pharmaceutical industry funding.
In 2002, Daniel Carlat, M.D., a practicing psychiatrist and a writer of psychiatric textbooks, was doing what many of his colleagues were doing in order to make extra money – giving promotional talks for drug companies. At $1000 per engagement, it was easy money, and for a time he was able to convince himself that his talks were completely objective, and were not biased in favor of the funding companies.
One day, however, a regional manager for a major drug company visited Dr. Carlat in his office, saying, “One of my drug reps called me and said that you didn’t seem as enthusiastic about our product as usual at the last lunch. I told him that even Dr. Carlat can’t hit a home run for us every time. Have you been sick?” At that moment, he realized that he had become little more than a glorified pharmaceutical representative. He resigned from all speaker’s bureaus, and started publishing The Carlat Psychiatry Report within six months.
Dr. Carlat started Clearview Publishing LLC (the official publisher of the newsletter) with $20,000 of his own money. He single-handedly wrote and produced the first few issues during the Tuesdays that he took off from his private practice. Learning about the publishing business on the fly, he mailed out promotional issues by hand, hoping that the idea of an unbiased alternative would gain some traction. Just as his initial capital was running out, subscription checks started flooding in, allowing him to continue printing monthly issues and to gradually hire others to help him with production and writing.
From the beginning, TCPR adopted a skeptical attitude toward many of the marketing claims accompanying new drug launches by pharmaceutical firms. In the January 2004 issue, this approach nearly resulted in the newsletter’s untimely demise. The article in question, entitled “Cymbalta: Double the reuptake, triple the hype,” was critical of some of the statements of efficacy made by Eli Lilly researchers. Soon after the issue was printed, an Eli Lilly attorney contacted the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS), which was at that time the CME accreditor for the publication. The attorney maintained that the article was unfair and biased, and was therefore out of compliance with ACCME standards for CME programs. MMS ordered the newsletter to cease its CME program pending a formal investigation of the complaint.
Fortunately, Dr. Carlat knew an editor at Lippincott Williams and Wilkins (LWW) who helped facilitate a transfer of the CME program to Wolters Kluwer Health, the parent company of LWW. Thus, the newsletter was able to continue publishing. Dr. Carlat invited Eli Lilly to write a rebuttal to the newsletter’s article on Cymbalta, which was published on the web site (read it by clicking here). The company did not pursue any legal action against the newsletter.
In July of 2006, Clearview Publishing applied for, and was awarded, independent accreditation as a CME provider by the ACCME.
Editorial Staff
Editor-in-Chief
Daniel J. Carlat, M.D., is Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine and maintains a private practice in Newburyport, Massachusetts. He graduated from the psychiatric residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1995, has written The Psychiatric Interview, and Drug Metabolism in Psychiatry, and is founding editor of The Practical Guide Series in Psychiatry, published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Associate Editor
Marcia L. Zuckerman, M.D., graduated from Harvard Medical School and trained at the Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Program. She practices psychiatry at a community clinic of Massachusetts General Hospital (Chelsea, Massachusetts) and at HRI Hospital's Triangle Partial Hospital Program (Brookline, Massachusetts), and has edited numerous medical and technical publications.
Editorial Board
Ronald C. Albucher, M.D. Director of Counseling and Psychiatric Services, clinical assistant professor of Psychiatry, Stanford University, Palo Alto
Ivan Goldberg, M.D., Creator, Depression Central Web Site, psychopharmacologist in private practice, New York City
Alan D. Lyman, M.D., Child and adolescent psychiatrist in private practice, New York City
Robert L. Mick, M.D., Medical Director of DePaul Addiction Services, Rochester, New York
Michael Posternak, M.D., Staff Psychiatrist, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
Glen Spielmans, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology, Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, Minnesota
