From the Department of Things Better Left Unsaid

According to a New York Times investigation published last week, Minnesota psychiatrists who receive payments from pharmaceutical companies to study or lecture about their drugs are three or more times as likely to prescribe powerful—and controversial—anti-psychotic drugs to children.

After introducing readers to a Minnesota teen suffering from a painful, disfiguring side effect of one of the drugs, the Times asked the doctor who oversaw the team treating her to defend his relationship to the drug's maker. University of Minnesota Psychiatry Professor George Realmuto didn't remember the girl, but he did allow that he wanted "to be seen as a leader in my specialty."

The good doctor didn't stop there, though. "Academics don't get paid very much," he told the paper. "If I was an entertainer, I think I would certainly do a lot better." According to the Times, Realmuto's UM salary is $196,310.

By press time, Realmuto had not returned City Pages' call—which might be a wise move on his part.