http://www.santa.inuk.com/frame.htm
"...Anxiety Disorders Association of America. If these claims were presented by a drug company they would likely appear to the public and news organizations as self-serving and biased. If, however, they are presented to the public by an organization that seems only to have the health and welfare of the public in mind, they seem objective and credible. This is certainly what drug-company executives believe, which is why they go great lengths to create and influence what are essentially front organizations for the pharmaceutical industry.
Consider the case at hand. The Anxiety Disorders Association of America, ADAA, receives so much funding and influence from the industry that it is misleading to suggest that they are not an intricate part of it. The Boston Globe and the New York Times both received much of their information for the above reports from an ADAA press release, treating it in just the manner that the industry would want: as objective information from an independent organization. As a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times makes clear, however, the ADAA is neither neutral nor objective: "I recently received a press release from the Anxiety Disorders Association of America. It said if your child is afraid of going back to school, maybe it's not normal, maybe your child needs drugs. The release says three children in every class have an anxiety disorder. The solution? Well, enclosed are details of a drug company-sponsored workshop showing the wonders of Paxil and similar drugs."
With funding coming directly from Paxil's maker, ADAA did much more than just send out press releases. The summer of '99 also saw a barrage of advertising by ADAA, which asked people to imagine being "allergic to people." A poster they used had a picture of a young man staring despondently into a coffee cup while a happy "social" couple sat at the other end of the table. The implication is made clear by the caption, which reads: "Over 10 million Americans suffer from social anxiety disorder... The good news is that this disorder is treatable." In addition to a tollfree number and a Web site being listed, the poster indicates support, not from a drug company, as it should, but from three nonprofit groups: the American Psychiatric Association, the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, and Freedom From Fear, which together form what is called the Social Anxiety Disorder Coalition. Like ADAA, the these two organizations receive substantial funding from the pharmaceutical industry. "Funding for their public awareness campaign comes from a far less visible partner: SmithKline Beecham, the pharmaceutical giant whose flagship antidepressant [is] Paxil," writes Michelle Cottle in The New Republic (August 2, 1999). Cottle also notes that the APA's social phobia website is paid for by SmithKline, as is ADAA's, and that, on July 19, 1999, ADAA would hold a press conference to announce the findings of a study, paid for by various drug makers, suggesting a huge impact of anxiety disorders on America's productivity. Behind all this is ADAA's corporate advisory board, which is made up of representatives from different drug companies. ..."
