Jonathan T. Leo is a former Professor of Anatomy at

Lincoln Memorial University Lincoln Memorial University (LMU) is a private university in Harrogate, Tennessee and Knoxville, Tennessee. Its Harrogate main campus borders on Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. , it had 1,605 undergraduate and 4,200 graduate and profe ...

Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and civil parish in the North Yorkshire District, district and North Yorkshire, county of North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist de ...

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

. He is currently an Associate Professor of Anatomy at the

Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine The Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine (ACOM) is a private medical school in Dothan, Alabama. It is the first osteopathic medical school in the state and is believed to be the first osteopathic medical school in the nation established by a r ...

. He has published articles critical of chemical and biological theories of

mental illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...

. He is the former

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

of ''

Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry Peter Roger Breggin (born May 11, 1936) is an American psychiatrist and critic of shock treatment and psychiatric medication and COVID-19 response. In his books, he advocates replacing psychiatry's use of drugs and electroconvulsive therapy with ...

''. With Sami Timimi, he is also the co-editor of the book ''Rethinking ADHD''.

''JAMA'' controversy

In 2008, Leo and Jeffrey Lacasse co-authored a

letter to the editor A letter to the editor (LTE) is a Letter (message), letter sent to a publication about an issue of concern to the reader. Usually, such letters are intended for publication. In many publications, letters to the editor may be sent either through ...

that was published in ''

JAMA ''JAMA'' (''The Journal of the American Medical Association'') is a peer-reviewed medical journal published 48 times a year by the American Medical Association. It publishes original research, reviews, and editorials covering all aspects of b ...

''. The letter criticized a

randomized controlled trial A randomized controlled trial (or randomized control trial; RCT) 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 ...

that had been published in ''JAMA'' aimed at determining the effectiveness of the

antidepressant drug Antidepressants are a class of medications used to treat major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, chronic pain, and addiction. Common side effects of antidepressants include dry mouth, weight gain, dizziness, headaches, akathisia, sexual ...

escitalopram Escitalopram ( ), sold under the brand names Lexapro and Cipralex, among others, is an antidepressant medication of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class. It is mainly used to treat major depressive disorder, generalized ...

in the treatment of

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

. Leo and Lacasse criticized the original trial for not directly comparing the effectiveness of escitalopram with that of problem-solving therapy. After this letter was published, Leo discovered through a

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

search that one of the authors of the escitalopram paper, psychiatrist Robert Robinson, had received

speaking fee A speaking fee is a payment awarded to an individual for speaking at a public event. Motivational speakers, businesspersons, facilitators, and celebrities are able to garner significant earnings in speaking fees or honoraria. In 2013, $10,000 wa ...

s from

Forest Laboratories Forest Laboratories was a company in the pharmaceutical industry incorporated in Delaware, with its principal office in New York City. It was known for licensing European pharmaceuticals for sale in the United States. On July 1, 2014, the compan ...

, 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 ''The BMJ'' is a fortnightly peer-reviewed medical journal, published by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, which in turn is wholly-owned by the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world ...

'' pointing out this conflict of interest.

References

External links

Faculty page
* Living people Lincoln Memorial University faculty Macalester College alumni University of Iowa alumni American anatomists American academic journal editors Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-academic-bio-stub