Biederman received the American Psychiatric Association’s Blanche Ittelson Award for Excellence in Child Psychiatric Research, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s Charlotte Norbert Rieger Award for Scientific Achievement. He has been inducted into the Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder "Hall of Fame." Biederman was the recipient of the 1998 NAMI Exemplary Psychiatrist award. He was also selected by the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society Awards committee as the recipient of the 2007 Outstanding Psychiatrist Award for Research. In 2007, Biederman received the Excellence in Research Award from the New England Council of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He was also awarded the Mentorship Award from the Department of Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Controversy
The death of 4-year-old Rebecca Riley of Hull, Massachusetts, in 2006 due to an overdose of drugs for attention deficit disorder and bipolar disorder occasioned public focus on the prescribing of such drugs to very young children. Although the parents were convicted of intentionally overdosing the child, the role of Joseph Biederman in promoting such prescribing was widely criticized.
In 2008, Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, undertook a Congressional investigation that alleged that Joseph Biederman, M.D., Timothy Wilens, M.D., and Thomas Spencer, M.D. had violated federal, Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital regulations by receiving large sums of money from the pharmaceutical companies. Biederman and Wilens "were leading investigators and advocates for the diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents." Biederman earned consulting fees of at least $1.6 million over eight years from pharmaceutical companies, but did not report much of this income to university officials. Johnson & Johnson gave more than $700,000 to a research center that was headed by Biederman from 2002 to 2005, and some of its research was about Risperdal, the company's antipsychotic drug. These allegations prompted an investigation by the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Biederman responded saying that the money did not influence him and that he did not promote a specific diagnosis or treatment. In 2011, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School disciplined Biederman, Wilens and Spencer for small violations conflict of interest of policies but most of the allegations made against them were not substantiated. All retain their academic standing at Harvard and their clinical positions at the Massachusetts General Hospital. In 2018 Biederman received 3,402 Dollars from Shire, mainly for consulting.https://projects.propublica.org/docdollars/doctors/pid/494991
