Jonathan Leo

Last updated
Jonathan Leo
NationalityAmerican
Education Macalester College
University of Iowa
Scientific career
Fields Neuroanatomy
Institutions Lincoln Memorial University
Thesis Alcohol-induced neuropathology in the neonatal rat brain  (1995)
Doctoral advisor Nicholas Pantazis

Jonathan T. Leo is a former Professor of Anatomy at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee. [1] He is currently an Associate Professor of Anatomy at the Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine. [2] 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. [3] [4]

Contents


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. [5] 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. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antidepressant</span> Class of medication used to treat depression and other conditions

Antidepressants are a class of medications used to treat major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, chronic pain, and addiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cognitive behavioral therapy</span> Type of therapy to improve mental health

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a psycho-social intervention that aims to reduce symptoms of various mental health conditions, primarily depression and anxiety disorders. Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most effective means of treatment for substance abuse and co-occurring mental health disorders. CBT focuses on challenging and changing cognitive distortions and their associated behaviors to improve emotional regulation and develop personal coping strategies that target solving current problems. Though it was originally designed to treat depression, its uses have been expanded to include many issues and the treatment of many mental health conditions, including anxiety, substance use disorders, marital problems, ADHD, and eating disorders. CBT includes a number of cognitive or behavioral psychotherapies that treat defined psychopathologies using evidence-based techniques and strategies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Major depressive disorder</span> Mental disorder involving persistent low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest

Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Introduced by a group of US clinicians in the mid-1970s, the term was adopted by the American Psychiatric Association for this symptom cluster under mood disorders in the 1980 version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III), and has become widely used since.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paroxetine</span> SSRI antidepressant medication

Paroxetine, sold under the brand names Paxil and Seroxat among others, is an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class. It is used to treat major depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and premenstrual dysphoric disorder. It has also been used in the treatment of premature ejaculation and hot flashes due to menopause. It is taken orally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Randomized controlled trial</span> Form of scientific experiment

A randomized controlled trial is a form of scientific experiment used to control factors not under direct experimental control. Examples of RCTs are clinical trials that compare the effects of drugs, surgical techniques, medical devices, diagnostic procedures, diets or other medical treatments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Escitalopram</span> SSRI antidepressant

Escitalopram, sold under the brand names Lexapro and Cipralex, among others, is an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class. Escitalopram is mainly used to treat major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. It is taken by mouth, available commercially as an oxalate salt exclusively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Citalopram</span> SSRI antidepressant

Citalopram, sold under the brand name Celexa among others, is an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class. It is used to treat major depressive disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, and social phobia. The antidepressant effects may take one to four weeks to occur. It is typically taken orally. In some European countries, it is sometimes given intravenously to initiate treatment, before switching to the oral route of administration for continuation of treatment. It has also been used intravenously in other parts of the world in some other circumstances.

<i>The Lancet</i> Peer-reviewed general medical journal

The Lancet is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal and one of the oldest of its kind. It is also one of the world's highest-impact academic journals. It was founded in England in 1823.

The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is a weekly medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It has been described as being among the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals as well as being the oldest continuously published one.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a mental and behavioral disorder, specifically an anxiety disorder characterized by excessive, uncontrollable and often irrational worry about events or activities. Worry often interferes with daily functioning, and individuals with GAD are often overly concerned about everyday matters such as health, finances, death, family, relationship concerns, or work difficulties. Symptoms may include excessive worry, restlessness, trouble sleeping, exhaustion, irritability, sweating, and trembling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bullous pemphigoid</span> Autoimmune disease of skin and connective tissue characterized by large blisters

Bullous pemphigoid is an autoimmune pruritic skin disease that typically occurs in people aged over 60, that may involve the formation of blisters (bullae) in the space between the epidermal and dermal skin layers. It is classified as a type II hypersensitivity reaction, which involves formation of anti-hemidesmosome antibodies, causing a loss of keratinocytes to basement membrane adhesion.

David Lawrence Sackett was an American-Canadian physician and a pioneer in evidence-based medicine. He is known as one of the fathers of Evidence-Based Medicine. He founded the first department of clinical epidemiology in Canada at McMaster University, and the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine. He is well known for his textbooks Clinical Epidemiology and Evidence-Based Medicine.

Management of depression is the treatment of depression that may involve a number of different therapies: medications, behavior therapy, psychotherapy, and medical devices.

Medical ghostwriters are employed by pharmaceutical companies and medical-device manufacturers to produce apparently independent manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals, conference presentations and other communications. Physicians and other scientists are paid to attach their names to the manuscripts as though they had authored them. The named authors may have had little or no involvement in the research or writing process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor</span> Class of antidepressant medication

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a class of drugs that are typically used as antidepressants in the treatment of major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, and other psychological conditions.

The relationship between antidepressant use and suicide risk is a subject of medical research and has faced varying levels of debate. This problem was thought to be serious enough to warrant intervention by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to label greater likelihood of suicide as a risk of using antidepressants. Some studies have shown that the use of certain antidepressants correlate with an increased risk of suicide in some patients relative to other antidepressants. However, these conclusions have faced considerable scrutiny and disagreement: A multinational European study indicated that antidepressants decrease risk of suicide at the population level, and other reviews of antidepressant use claim that there is not enough data to indicate antidepressant use increases risk of suicide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Study 329</span> Scientific article

Study 329 was a clinical trial which was conducted in North America from 1994 to 1998 to study the efficacy of paroxetine, an SSRI anti-depressant, in treating 12- to 18-year-olds diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Led by Martin Keller, then professor of psychiatry at Brown University, and funded by the British pharmaceutical company SmithKline Beecham—known since 2000 as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)—the study compared paroxetine with imipramine, a tricyclic antidepressant, and placebo. SmithKline Beecham had released paroxetine in 1991, marketing it as Paxil in North America and Seroxat in the UK. The drug attracted sales of $11.7 billion in the United States alone from 1997 to 2006, including $2.12 billion in 2002, the year before it lost its patent.

Cara Tannenbaum is a Canadian researcher and practicing physician in the fields of geriatrics, women's health and gender research. Since 2015, Tannenbaum has served as the Scientific Director of Canadian Institutes of Health Research's Institute of Gender and Health. She was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada on November 17, 2021.

Steven D. Hollon is an American psychologist, academic and researcher. He is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Psychology at Vanderbilt University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Etheldreda Nakimuli-Mpungu</span> Ugandan Mental health programme developer

Etheldreda Nakimuli-Mpungu is a professor, researcher, epidemiologist and psychiatrist at the Department of Psychiatry in the Faculty of Medicine, Makerere University in Uganda. Her research is particularly focused on supportive group psychotherapy as a first-line treatment for depression in people with HIV. She is one of only five recipients of the Elsevier Foundation Award for Early Career Women Scientists in the Developing World in Biological Sciences, as well as listed at one of the BBC's 100 Women in 2020.

References

  1. "Jonathan Leo, PhD". Lincoln Memorial University. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  2. "Faculty & Staff".
  3. 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.
  4. "Johnathan Leo, Ph.D. bio". NARPA. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  5. 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.
  6. 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. S2CID   57582276.