A NOTE ABOUT DR. RODRIGO MUNOZ, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION

I urge you to read the piece in today’s RFW’s Storm Warnings edition that focuses on an analysis of anti-depression medication data submitted to the FDA. It is an excellent piece of medical detective work.

When I was at ABC News, I produced a segment on the initial research by this team which clearly reveals how efficacy data submitted to the FDA on antidepressants shows, in part, that "80 per cent of the response to medication was duplicated in placebo control groups."

Lately, there has been a lot of news about placebos and anti-depressants and this report is the swift kick in the rear that champions of these pills have needed for a long time. In short, what is going on here is that the scientific foundations for this type of medication is being strongly questioned.

All this reminded me of a battle I had a couple of years back with Dr. Rodrigo Munoz, then head of the American Psychiatric Association, which ended in my issuing a challenge to him to debate me on the science of anti-depressants. After making this challenge public in my Second Opinion column at ABCNews.com, Munoz finally agreed to meet me in a debate that was to take place at one of his organization’s meeting to be held in New Orleans. I never heard from him again.

Maybe someone told him that the science on these pills was a bunch of crap and that he would get wangle-snapped in a debate with someone (namely me) who knew just how crude the science actually is (to this very day).

Now here is what has me chuckling (I’m trying to be cool about it): Munoz has responded to the report about the data submission to the FDA by 1) acknowledging that the research team might have a point and that further research should be done. "The next stage of research," he calls it. Sure, let’s have "mega-trials" and new experimental designs to test for efficacy after millions of people have been receiving these drugs on the basis of pathetic science. Nice.

MULTIPLE CHEMICAL SENSITIVITIES

In this edition, please go to the Recommended Site section and take some time looking over this excellent website that deals with an issue that RFW is putting on the high priority list.

The material on this site - note the proclamation and petition - is really a wake-up call to those who think that people suffering from chemicals are either faking it or have psychological difficulties. MCS is an illness that will require an enormous amount of investigation and response from health professionals. It is something to be taken very seriously, particularly as this planet is fast becoming more and more of a toxic chemical soup.

GENETIC TESTING

So you think that this is all laboratory stuff? Wait until it really blows out of the lab and starts to be used for commercial reasons in helter-skelter fashion. RFW will closely follow this issue and its potential dangers to privacy - and health - in the months ahead. Meanwhile, we include a simple but informative piece on the here-and-now of genetic testing.