Thomas A. Ban’s response to Barry Blackwell’s response

Our disagreement, as I see it, is not about “greed” or whether educators sell their “prestige and opinions to industry” because I never questioned that. Our difference is that even if educators don’t sell their “prestige and opinions,” we have created evidence-based data exclusively on the efficacy of psychotropic drugs on enlarged diagnostic populations that by confounding marketing with education serves marketing interests. All I am suggesting is that we should generate evidence-based data by identifying treatment responsive subpopulations with respect to effects in psychotropic drugs, as much as possible, so that even if educators do sell their prestige and opinions, the potential harm from it should be reduced.

Thomas A. Ban

March19, 2015