Study Finds a Link of Drug Makers to Psychiatrists

[Guest guest]

Study Finds a Link of Drug Makers to Psychiatrists

 

By BENEDICT CAREY

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/20/health/20psych.html?ex=1303185600 & en=3b53dcc8d\

366d8f1 & ei=5089 & partner=rss & emc=rss

 

More than half the psychiatrists who took part in developing a widely

used diagnostic manual for mental disorders had financial ties to drug

companies before or after the manual was published, public health

researchers reported yesterday.

 

The researchers found that 95 - or 56 percent - of 170 experts who

worked on the 1994 edition of the manual, called the Diagnostic and

Statistical Manual, or D.S.M, had at least one monetary relationship

with a drug maker in the years from 1989 to 2004. The most frequent

tie involved money for research, according to the study, an analysis

of financial records and conflict-of-interest statements.

 

The percentage was higher - 100 percent in some cases - for experts

who worked on sections of the manual devoted to severe mental

illnesses, like schizophrenia, the study found. But the authors, from

Tufts University and the University of Massachusetts, were not able to

establish how many of the psychiatrists were receiving money from drug

companies while the manual was being compiled.

 

Lisa Cosgrove, the study's lead author, who is a psychologist at the

University of Massachusetts in Boston, said that although the study

could not prove that the psychiatrists' ties influenced the manual's

development, " what we're saying is it's outrageous that the manual

doesn't have a disclosure policy. "

 

But other experts scoffed at the idea that commercial interests had

influenced either the language or content of the manual. " I can

categorically say, and I was there every step of the way, that

drug-company influence never entered into any of the discussions,

whatsoever, " said Dr. Michael First, a psychiatry professor at

Columbia, who coordinated development of the current D.S.M.

 

Some 400,000 mental health workers, from psychiatrists to nurses, use

the manual to diagnose disorders in patients, and health insurers use

the manual to determine coverage.

 

In recent years, critics have said that the manual has become too

expansive, including diagnoses, like social phobia, that they say

appear tailor-made to create a market for antidepressants or other drugs.

 

The study investigated the financial ties by sifting through legal

files, patent records, conflict-of-interest databases and journal

articles, among other records.

 

Twenty-two percent of the experts received consulting income in the

years from 1989 to 2004, the study found, and 16 percent served as

members of a drug maker's speakers bureau. Such services are typically

more lucrative than research support.