James Gottstein
Encyclopedia
James B. "Jim" Gottstein, JD, is an Alaska
based lawyer
who specializes in business matters and public land
law, and is well known as an attorney advocate
for people diagnosed with serious mental illness
. Gottstein has sought to check the massive growth in psychiatric drugging, particularly of children.
Gottstein is also trying to make alternatives to psychiatric
drugs available in Alaska, through organizations he has founded or helped lead, including Soteria-Alaska and CHOICES, Inc.
In 2002, Gottstein co-founded the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights), and currently serves as its president. He is also a member of the board of directors of the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology (ICSPP).
, and graduated in 1971 from West Anchorage High School. In 1974, he earned his bachelor of science degree, with honors in finance, from the University of Oregon
, in Eugene, Oregon
. Gottstein completed his legal studies in 1978, at Harvard Law School
. After graduating from Harvard, from 1978 to 1980, Gottstein returned to Alaska, where he launched his legal career at the law firm of Robert M. Goldberg & Associates.
, granted specifically for generating funds to operate the state's mental health program.
From 1998 to 2004, he was a member of the Alaska Mental Health Board (AMHB), where he served as committee chair for the program evaluation and budget committees.
In June, 2006, in a case that Gottstein argued before the Alaska Supreme Court, Myers v. Alaska Psychiatric Institute, the court ruled that Alaska's forced drugging procedures were unconstitutional.
.
In addition to co-founding PsychRights, Gottstein has co-founded several organizations, including:
, dated between 1995 and 2004, which showed that the company was aware that psychiatrist
s were reporting that many of their patients on the neuroleptic (antipsychotic
) drug Zyprexa were developing high blood sugar or diabetes.
The memos also showed that Lilly had engaged in off-label
marketing schemes, including one called "Viva Zyprexa" which encouraged primary care physicians to prescribe Zyprexa for conditions other than those for which the drug had been approved. United States federal law prohibits drug manufacturers from marketing prescription drugs for purposes other than those for which they have been approved, though individual medical practitioners have latitude to prescribe drugs to any patient they wish.
Gottstein obtained copies of the Eli Lilly memos from a doctor who had served as an expert witness in prior litgation involving Zyprexa, which had resulted in an out-of-court settlement of nearly $700 million with about 8,000 Zyprexa patients. At that time, Lilly succeeded in keeping the documents out of public view by obtaining protective orders to keep the documents under court seal and by requiring plaintiffs to sign confidentiality agreements in order to obtain out-of-court settlements.
However, upon realizing the magnitude of Lilly's off-label marketing effort, Gottstein took the information to the New York Times, which published several articles quoting from the documents. Gottstein further wrote to Lilly's attorneys requesting that the company issue a "Dear doctor" letter to "all health care providers in the United States advising them Zyprexa should not be prescribed to anyone who is not already taking it," noting however that the drug should not be withheld from patients who were currently using it because abrupt withdrawal could cause neuroleptic induced discontinuation syndrome. "It is now clear," Gottstein wrote, "that Zyprexa has no benefits over other neuroleptics, while causing far more cases of diabetes than do other drugs in its class.... This represents a massive health disaster including at least thousands of past and inevitable future deaths."
Eli Lilly responded to the articles in the New York Times by obtaining injunctions against Gottstein, the expert witness doctor from whom Gottstein had obtained the documents, and various advocacy groups, journalists, authors, doctors, and Internet websites to in order to bar them from further dissemination of information from the documents.
At the time of the disclosures, Zyprexa had become Lilly's top selling drug despite having been approved only to treat adults with schizophrenia
or bipolar disorder
. In 2005, Zyprexa sales amounted to $4.2 billion, thirty percent of the company's total revenues. Lilly denies that links between Zyprexa and diabetes have ever been proven.
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
based lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
who specializes in business matters and public land
Public land
In all modern states, some land is held by central or local governments. This is called public land. The system of tenure of public land, and the terminology used, varies between countries...
law, and is well known as an attorney advocate
Advocate
An advocate is a term for a professional lawyer used in several different legal systems. These include Scotland, South Africa, India, Scandinavian jurisdictions, Israel, and the British Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man...
for people diagnosed with serious mental illness
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
. Gottstein has sought to check the massive growth in psychiatric drugging, particularly of children.
Gottstein is also trying to make alternatives to psychiatric
Antipsychotic
An antipsychotic is a tranquilizing psychiatric medication primarily used to manage psychosis , particularly in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. A first generation of antipsychotics, known as typical antipsychotics, was discovered in the 1950s...
drugs available in Alaska, through organizations he has founded or helped lead, including Soteria-Alaska and CHOICES, Inc.
In 2002, Gottstein co-founded the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights), and currently serves as its president. He is also a member of the board of directors of the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology (ICSPP).
Education and early career
Gottstein grew up in Anchorage, AlaskaAnchorage, Alaska
Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...
, and graduated in 1971 from West Anchorage High School. In 1974, he earned his bachelor of science degree, with honors in finance, from the University of Oregon
University of Oregon
-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...
, in Eugene, Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Eugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...
. Gottstein completed his legal studies in 1978, at Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
. After graduating from Harvard, from 1978 to 1980, Gottstein returned to Alaska, where he launched his legal career at the law firm of Robert M. Goldberg & Associates.
Career
Since 1985, Gottstein has practiced law independently, conducting business as the Law Offices of James B. Gottstein. Between 1986 and 1997, Gottstein represented Alaskans with mental disorders in the Mental Health Trust Land Litigation, which resulted in a settlement valued at approximately $1 billion. State agencies in Alaska had misappropriated funds generated by a one million acre (4,000 km²) land trustLand trust
There are two distinct definitions of a land trust:* a private, nonprofit organization that, as all or part of its mission, actively works to conserve land by undertaking or assisting in land or conservation easement acquisition, or by its stewardship of such land or easements; or* an agreement...
, granted specifically for generating funds to operate the state's mental health program.
From 1998 to 2004, he was a member of the Alaska Mental Health Board (AMHB), where he served as committee chair for the program evaluation and budget committees.
In June, 2006, in a case that Gottstein argued before the Alaska Supreme Court, Myers v. Alaska Psychiatric Institute, the court ruled that Alaska's forced drugging procedures were unconstitutional.
PsychRights and consumer advocacy
The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights, aka PsychRights, is a non-profit organization founded by Gottstein to organize a serious, coordinated legal effort against forced psychiatric medication. Its mission is to bring fairness and reason into the administration of legal aspects of the mental health system, particularly unwarranted court ordered psychiatric drugging and electroshockElectroconvulsive therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy , formerly known as electroshock, is a psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in anesthetized patients for therapeutic effect. Its mode of action is unknown...
.
In addition to co-founding PsychRights, Gottstein has co-founded several organizations, including:
- The Alaska Mental Health Consumer Web (with Katsumi Kenaston), which provides peer-support and a drop in center for mental health consumers in Anchorage;
- CHOICES, Inc. (Consumers Having Ownership in Creating Effective Services), which provides peer-run, alternative services, especially the right to choose not to take psychiatric drugs;
- Mental Health Consumers of Alaska (with Andrea Schmook and Barbara Greene), for which he served as a board member for ten years;
- Peer Properties, Inc., which is strictly an owner and operator of real estate, provides peer (mental healthMental healthMental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...
consumer) run housing for people diagnosed with serious mental illness who are homeless, at risk of homelessnessHomelessnessHomelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence." The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country...
, or living in bad situations; and - Soteria-Alaska, Inc., where he now serves as president, is dedicated to providing a non-coercive and mainly non-drug alternative to psychiatric hospitalPsychiatric hospitalPsychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
ization, under the principles established by the late Dr. Loren MosherLoren MosherLoren Richard Mosher was an American psychiatrist, clinical professor of psychiatry, expert on schizophrenia and the chief of the Center for Studies of Schizophrenia in the National Institute of Mental Health...
;
Eli Lilly memos
In December 2006, during the course of litigation, Gottstein obtained internal documents of the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and CompanyEli Lilly and Company
Eli Lilly and Company is a global pharmaceutical company. Eli Lilly's global headquarters is located in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the United States...
, dated between 1995 and 2004, which showed that the company was aware that psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
s were reporting that many of their patients on the neuroleptic (antipsychotic
Antipsychotic
An antipsychotic is a tranquilizing psychiatric medication primarily used to manage psychosis , particularly in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. A first generation of antipsychotics, known as typical antipsychotics, was discovered in the 1950s...
) drug Zyprexa were developing high blood sugar or diabetes.
The memos also showed that Lilly had engaged in off-label
Off-label use
Off-label use is the practice of prescribing pharmaceuticals for an unapproved indication or in an unapproved age group, unapproved dose or unapproved form of administration...
marketing schemes, including one called "Viva Zyprexa" which encouraged primary care physicians to prescribe Zyprexa for conditions other than those for which the drug had been approved. United States federal law prohibits drug manufacturers from marketing prescription drugs for purposes other than those for which they have been approved, though individual medical practitioners have latitude to prescribe drugs to any patient they wish.
Gottstein obtained copies of the Eli Lilly memos from a doctor who had served as an expert witness in prior litgation involving Zyprexa, which had resulted in an out-of-court settlement of nearly $700 million with about 8,000 Zyprexa patients. At that time, Lilly succeeded in keeping the documents out of public view by obtaining protective orders to keep the documents under court seal and by requiring plaintiffs to sign confidentiality agreements in order to obtain out-of-court settlements.
However, upon realizing the magnitude of Lilly's off-label marketing effort, Gottstein took the information to the New York Times, which published several articles quoting from the documents. Gottstein further wrote to Lilly's attorneys requesting that the company issue a "Dear doctor" letter to "all health care providers in the United States advising them Zyprexa should not be prescribed to anyone who is not already taking it," noting however that the drug should not be withheld from patients who were currently using it because abrupt withdrawal could cause neuroleptic induced discontinuation syndrome. "It is now clear," Gottstein wrote, "that Zyprexa has no benefits over other neuroleptics, while causing far more cases of diabetes than do other drugs in its class.... This represents a massive health disaster including at least thousands of past and inevitable future deaths."
Eli Lilly responded to the articles in the New York Times by obtaining injunctions against Gottstein, the expert witness doctor from whom Gottstein had obtained the documents, and various advocacy groups, journalists, authors, doctors, and Internet websites to in order to bar them from further dissemination of information from the documents.
At the time of the disclosures, Zyprexa had become Lilly's top selling drug despite having been approved only to treat adults with schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
or bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder or bipolar affective disorder, historically known as manic–depressive disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or...
. In 2005, Zyprexa sales amounted to $4.2 billion, thirty percent of the company's total revenues. Lilly denies that links between Zyprexa and diabetes have ever been proven.
External links
- Law Project for Psychiatric Rights
- Gottstein, James B. (2006-06-30). "Alaska Forced Medication Case (Faith Myers v. Alaska Psychiatric Hospital): Alaska Supreme Court Rules Alaska's Forced Drugging Regime Unconstitutional". Law Project for Psychiatric Rights.
- CHOICES, Inc.
- Peer Properties, Inc.
- Soteria-Alaska
- International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology