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"In addition," she said, "it is not clear that subjects had a tapered withdrawal, which would increase the likelihood of misclassification of withdrawal symptoms as relapse."
Mangin reports that in the year the study was published, one KOL (with the name redacted), received $72,000 from Glaxo in the first 6 months of 2006 alone, for giving 28 talks, which works out to $2,880 per talk.
The next name on the list read to the jury was Katherine Wisner, "a figure who has published quite extensively on the issue of it being often quite good to treat women of childbearing years and even women who are actually pregnant with antidepressants," Healy said.
"She puts forward the point of view that it may be more harmful to leave the condition untreated," he told the jury.
Charles Nemeroff's name was on page 110. "He was probably the leading figure in the field or the leading person on this list," Healy said.
Zachary Stowe was on page 151, and last name read was Kimberly Yonkers. Healy called her "extremely influential."
Convenient Report Appears
During cross-examination, Varner asked Healy about a report that was co-published in the journals, Obstetrics and Gynecology and General Hospital Psychiatry, in September 2009, the very month that the first Paxil birth defect trial was scheduled to start, which she claimed was a joint statement from the American Psychiatric Association and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The report was titled, "The Management of Depression During Pregnancy."
"The purpose of this deliberation," Varner said to Healy, "was to come up with a statement from those two organizations that would assist prescribers in making their decisions about how to treat depression in pregnant women, correct?"
"We do not know that this was endorsed by APA," Healy said. "We don't know if it was endorsed by ACOG."
"We don't know whether it was a collection of individuals who just got together and because they belonged to both APA and ACOG, thought that they could put this kind of title on the piece," he told the jury.
"It's correct, is it not," Varner asked Healy, "that ACOG and APA describe some of the risks that were found (with SSRIs) that were, quote, extremely small and not replicated by other studies?"
"It's not correct to say that at all," Healy said. "APA and ACOG have not said this."
"What you got is a number of authors here who are linked to either APA or ACOG who have said this," he told Varner. "The reason that I make this point is I have been party to processes like this on behalf of the British Association for Psychopharmacology and I can tell you exactly, if you want, how statements like this arise."
"I'm not asking that," Varner stated, cutting Healy off.
