Investigated by Senator Grassley: Top 10 Medi-Cal Prescribers of Seroquel

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Investigated by Senator Grassley: Top 10 Medi-Cal Prescribers of Seroquel 2009

In April of 2010, Senator Grassley asked (see this doc) for information from the State of California on the Top 10 Prescribers of the following drugs: ( *Spring of 2010 is also when AstraZeneca was fined $520 million by the Dept of Justice for illegal marketing of the antipsychotic Seroquel)

• Abilify
• Geodon
• Seroquel
• Zyprexa
• Risperdal
• OxyContin
• Roxicodone
• Xanax

One of the top 10 prescribing doctors is a familiar name in the mental health blogging world, as a blogger himself, and the new editor of the Carlat Psychiatry Report, Dr. Steven Balt, psychiatrist.

I discovered this information by surprise, when Dr Balt placed this on Twitter:

One of my former officemates made Sen. Grassley's list of Top-10 prescribers of Seroquel & Abilify in 2011!Congrats! is.gd/LL4ULV

— Dr Steve Balt (@balts) August 2, 2012

I looked at the document and when looking for top Abilify and Seroquel prescribers, I found Balt's name on page 7...

So, I asked:

is page 7 you, or someone else? 2009 1000+ rx of Seroquel? psychsearch.net/top-prescriber… @balts

— soulful sepulcher (@soulflsepulcher) August 2, 2012

Balt's response:

@soulflsepulcher Yikes! That was my busy clinic year, but still only 3 days/week... don't see how #s can be that high... BUT...

— Dr Steve Balt (@balts) August 2, 2012

@soulflsepulcher ...BUT it was a turning point... my Rxs can now be counted on two hands

— Dr Steve Balt (@balts) August 2, 2012

Part 2 soon