Jonathan Leo

Jonathan T. Leo was a Professor of Anatomy at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee.[1] He has published articles critical of chemical and biological theories of mental illness. He is the former editor-in-chief of Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry. With Sami Timimi, he is also the co-editor of the book Rethinking ADHD.[2][3]

Jonathan Leo
NationalityUnited States
EducationMacalester College
University of Iowa
Scientific career
FieldsNeuroanatomy
InstitutionsLincoln Memorial University
ThesisAlcohol-induced neuropathology in the neonatal rat brain (1995)
Doctoral advisorNicholas Pantazis

JAMA controversy

In 2008, Leo and Jeffrey Lacasse co-authored a letter to the editor that was published in JAMA. The letter criticized a randomized controlled trial that had been published in JAMA aimed at determining the effectiveness of the antidepressant drug escitalopram in the treatment of stroke. Leo and Lacasse criticized the original trial for not directly comparing the effectiveness of escitalopram with that of problem-solving therapy.[4] After this letter was published, Leo discovered through a Google search that one of the authors of the escitalopram paper, psychiatrist Robert Robinson, had received speaking fees from Forest Laboratories, the company that produces and sells the drug under the name Lexapro. Robinson had not disclosed this conflict of interest in the paper. Five months later, Leo and Lacasse published a letter on the website of the BMJ pointing out this conflict of interest.[5] Shortly thereafter, JAMA published an editorial harshly criticizing Leo for publishing this conflict-of-interest accusation publicly before the journal could investigate it. The editorial also stated that the editors of JAMA had contacted the dean of Lincoln Memorial University, Ray Stowers, for his "assistance in resolving this issue." Stowers later claimed that the editors of JAMA were pressuring him to compel Leo to retract the BMJ letter, but he refused to do so.[6] Leo himself also said that he received an angry phone call from Phil Fontanarosa, the executive deputy editor of JAMA, declaring that Leo was banned from JAMA for life. This was reportedly followed by a call from Catherine D. DeAngelis, the editor-in-chief of JAMA, who called Leo's superiors and described him as "a nobody and a nothing", adding that she felt that Leo "should be spending time with his students instead of doing this."[7] Leo defended his decision to write about Robinson's conflict of interest, telling the New York Times, "The way I look at it, all of the information was available in the public realm, and there was no law stopping me from writing about it."[8]

References
  1. "Jonathan Leo, PhD". Lincoln Memorial University. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  2. Goldhill, Olivia (2017-12-29). "30 years after Prozac arrived, we still buy the lie that chemical imbalances cause depression". Quartz. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  3. "Johnathan Leo, Ph.D. bio". NARPA. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  4. Lacasse, Jeffrey (2008-10-15). "Escitalopram, Problem-Solving Therapy, and Poststroke Depression". JAMA. 300 (15): 1757–8, author reply 1758–9. doi:10.1001/jama.300.15.1757-c. ISSN 0098-7484. PMID 18854528.
  5. Leo, Jonathan; Jeffrey Lacasse, Assistant Professor of Social Work (2019-07-11). "Clinical Trials of Therapy versus Medication: Even in a Tie, Medication wins". BMJ. 338 (feb05 1): b463. doi:10.1136/bmj.b463. ISSN 0959-8138.
  6. Stripling, Jack (2009-04-09). "You're Nobody 'til You're Snubbed". Inside Higher Education. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  7. Edwards, Jim (2009-03-16). "Forest Labs' Lexapro Flap Over JAMA Article Will Likely Be Examined by the Feds". CBS News. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  8. Rabin, Roni Caryn (2009-03-31). "Researchers Square Off on Disclosure". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-07-17.


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