The National Mental Health Association (NMHA) recently changed its name to Mental Health America (MHA) and says that it addresses all aspects of mental health and mental illness. It is a key sponsor of the annual National Screening for Depression program. For years it has been driven by pharmaceutical company dollars and, in turn, drives their agenda.

• In 2000, media exposed how MHA received significant funds from Eli Lilly, which refers journalists to the organization for information—around $1 million in funding.^[1]

• MHA’s 2001 Annual Report lists nearly $2 million from the following pharmaceutical companies: Eli Lilly ($700,000), Pfizer ($500,000), Janssen, McNeill and Wyeth ($400,000-499,999), Forest ($300,000–399,999), AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP; Bristol-Myers Squibb ($200,000-299,000); Eli Lilly Foundation ($50,000-99,999); GlaxoSmithKline (GSK):($10,000-49,999), Abbott ($5,000-9,999).^[2]

• In September 2002, the National Mental Health Association (Mental Health America) and Jed Foundation sent 3,000 college presidents a letter and 13-page study called “Safeguarding Your Students Against Suicide” underwritten by Wyeth and Forest Labs.^[3]

• MHA’s 2006 annual report shows the group received over $1 million each from Lilly, Bristol-Myers, and Wyeth. Janssen and Pfizer gave between $500,000 and $1,000,000, and AstraZeneca and Forest donated between $100,000 and $499,000. Glaxo gave between $50,000 and $100,000 in 2006.^[4]

• Their 2007 Annual Report showed the slush fund continued: Lilly, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Wyeth gave $1 million or more. Janssen and Pfizer donated between $500,000 to $999,999. AstraZeneca and Forest gave between $100,000 to $499,999, while GSK increased their donation to between $50,000 to $99,999, along with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Shire US and Solvay gave ($10,000 to $24,999).^[5]

• Mental Health America has recently been awarded a $750,000 grant by Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation.^[6]

• In 2008, Pfizer donated at least $500,000 to Mental Health America’s so-called “Campaign for America’s Mental Health” while Eli Lilly donated $300,000 in 2007. However, it raked in over $3 million in pharmaceutical company funding in one year alone.^[7]

• Mental Health America’s study “Ranking America’s Mental Health” that supposedly ranked the states by depression and suicide rates was heralded by psychiatrists and received high-profile attention from news, yet in citing the report never mentioned that Wyeth funded the project.^[8]

Ray Moynihan, Alan Cassels, authors of Selling Sickness: How the World’s Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies are Turning Us All into Patients also found from extensive research that “partnering with patient groups has become a key element of marketing strategies for every major medical condition, with virtually every drug company.”^[9]

[1] Craig Offman, “Prozac Indignation,” Salon Magazine, May 17, 2000.

[2] National Mental Health Association Annual Report 2001, p. 10.

[3] Paul Glader, “From the Maker of Effexor: Campus Talks on Depression,” Wall Street Journal, 10 Oct. 2002.

[4] http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/04/just-say-no-to-the-mothers-act/.

[5] “2007 Annual Report,” Mental Health America, 2007.

[6] http://www.opednews.com/articles/Mental-Health-Ameica-750-by-Kenneth-Briggs-090406-535.html.

[7] http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/04/just-say-no-to-the-mothers-act/; http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/blog/nami-drug-money-laundering-is-illegal.html.

[8] http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080127/NEWS01/895767331.

[9] Ray Moynihan, Alan Cassels, Selling Sickness, (Nation Books, New York, 2005), p. 62.