Psychiatry :: Drugs :: Conflict of Interest or Bias?

Ask your doctor above their fiscal relationships with the manufacturers of the drugs they prescribe.

clipped from www.nytimes.com “I have come to understand that money from the pharmaceutical industry can shape the practices of nonprofit organizations that purport to be independent in their viewpoints and actions,” Mr. Grassley said Thursday in a letter to the association. In 2006, the latest year for which numbers are available, the drug industry accounted for about 30 percent of the association’s $62.5 million in financing. “I think we need to review all arrangements between doctors and industry and be very clear about what constitutes a conflict of interest and what does not.” But many psychiatrists supplement this income with consulting arrangements with drug makers, traveling the country to give dinner talks about drugs to other doctors for fees generally ranging from $750 to $3,500 per event, for instance. Others say industry and academic researchers are now so deeply intertwined that exposing doctors’ private arrangements only stokes suspicion without correcting the real problem: bias.