Several researchers who were cited in Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ report denied any involvement in the studies, mainly because RFK Jr appeared to have used bogus reports.
Last week, the MAHA commission published its report offering their analysis of what’s driving chronic disease among the nation’s children.
But, according to NOTUS at least seven sources cited in the report are fake and other researchers argue that the commission misinterpreted their work.
Epidemiologist Katherine Keyes told NOTUS that she did not write a paper on anxiety in adolescents despite being listed in the MAHA report as the first author of a study titled, “Changes in mental health and substance abuse among US adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
In fact, it doesn’t appear as if anyone wrote the paper cited in the report. The citation claims that the study was published in the 12th issue of the 176th edition of the JAMA Pediatrics medical journal, but, NOTUS reported that issue did not have the study.
“The paper cited is not a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with,” Keyes said. “We’ve certainly done research on this topic, but did not publish a paper in JAMA Pediatrics on this topic with that co-author group, or with that title.”
Psychiatric researcher Robert L. Findling, who is credited with authoring a study about how a rise in direct-to-consumer drug advertisements has led to physicians prescribing more ADHD medications and antidepressants for kids, told NOTUS that he did not write that report and there’s not mention of the study in medical literature.
Pediatric pulmonologist Harold J. Farber also denied writing or even working with the other authors listed on a study about American children being over medicated that was cited in the MAHA report.
NOTUS also found that even in instances where the report cited the authors correctly, they misrespresented their study’s findings.
“The conclusions in the report are not accurate and the journal reference is incorrect. It was not published in Pediatrics. Also, the study was not done in children, but in college students,” said Mariana G. Figueiro, whose research about how screen time affects children’s sleep was cited in the report.
Another report cited by the MAHA commission to conclude that therapy alone is as or more effective than psychiatric medicine, was also incorrect according to the author.
Joanne McKenzie, a biostatistics professor at an Australian university, told NOTUS the conclusion made no sense because they did not study therapy as a mental health treatment.
“We did not include psychotherapy in our review. We only compared the effectiveness of (new generation) antidepressants against each other, and against placebo,” McKenzie said.
