Mental illness writers had industry ties: study [-- oh, we are sooooooooooo surp

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[sSRI-Research] Mental illness writers had industry ties:

study [-- oh, we are sooooooooooo surprised....]

 

 

 

[-- oh, we are sooooooooooo surprised....]

 

Mental illness writers had industry ties: study

By Lisa Richwine2 hours, 56 minutes ago

 

http://news./s/nm/20060420/hl_nm/psychiatrists_dc_1

 

Most of the experts who wrote the manual widely used to diagnose

mental illness have had financial ties to drug makers such as research

funding or stock holdings, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

 

Writing in a new study, they called for full disclosure of the

relationships between companies and the medical experts on panels that

craft future editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of

Mental Disorders, known as the DSM.

 

" Transparency is especially important when there are multiple and

continuous financial relationships between panel members and the

pharmaceutical industry, because of the greater likelihood that the

drug industry may be exerting an undue influence, " the researchers

wrote in a study to be published in the journal Psychotherapy and

Psychosomatics.

 

The American Psychiatric Association, which publishes the DSM, said it

would require financial disclosures for the next version, due out in

2011 [-- think of how many will die between now and then... the APA

must be on drugs!].

 

The study found 56 percent of 170 psychiatric experts who worked on

the most recent edition, published in 1994, had at least one financial

link to a drug maker at some point from 1989 through 2004. The

relationships included speaking or consulting fees, ownership of

company stock, payment for gifts and travel and funding for research.

 

All of the experts who developed sections defining mood disorders,

schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders had such links, the study

said.

 

" The connections are especially strong in those diagnostic areas where

drugs are the first line of treatment for mental disorders, " the study

said.

 

Critics say psychiatric drugs are overprescribed.

 

Dr. Darrel Regier, director of the American Psychiatric Association's

research division, said the study was " an attempt to develop probably

some guilt by association with the pharmaceutical industry. "

 

He said he did not believe financial connections to companies

influenced development of the manual. If none of the experts were

involved with the industry, " that would mean they were really out of

step with the major advances in the treatment of mental illness, " he said.

 

The authors of the new study, researchers from the University of

Massachusetts and Tufts University, said they based their findings on

searches of various databases, financial disclosures in medical

journals and other records.

 

They said they could not determine if the experts had ties to the

companies while they were working on the manual.

 

But Lisa Cosgrove, one of the study's authors, said the associations

could raise questions even if they occurred after the experts updated

the DSM.

 

" They can certainly leverage their participation on the DSM, which is

very prestigious, into lucrative consulting contracts, " said Cosgrove,

a clinical psychologist at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.

 

Ken Johnson, a spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and

Manufacturers of America, said the industry group had not yet reviewed

the study. " But it is important to note that the physicians and other

health care professionals who sit on expert medical advisory panels

have impeccable integrity and base their decisions on independent

judgments and research, " he said.

 

 

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