In only three years, the number of disclosures of drug company funding by presenters at the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) annual convention has increased approximately 300%—from four pages in the 2004 APA program to 16 pages in the 2007 program.

The increase was promoted by stricter standards for disclosure by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education in 2004. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a psychiatric watchdog group, says the APA's conflicts of interest are coming under national scrutiny as transparency requirements for drug companies paying and gifting doctors gain momentum. The Washington Post reported that the number of financial disclosures in the program "reflects the extent of corporate sponsorships…. Some instructors were sponsored by at least a dozen companies."

And on June 27th, The New York Times reported, "As states begin to require that drug companies disclose their payments to doctors for lectures and other services, a pattern has emerged: psychiatrists earn more money from drug makers than doctors in any other specialty. How this money may be influencing psychiatrists and other doctors has become one of the most contentious issues in health care. For instance, the more psychiatrists have earned from drug makers, the more they have prescribed a new class of powerful medicines known as atypical antipsychotics to children, for whom the drugs are especially risky and mostly unapproved."

CCHR says that even high-ranking psychiatrists such as Dr. Steven Sharfstein, former president of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), have pointed out the financial corruption in their field. In 2006, Sharfstein admitted, "We have allowed ourselves to be corrupted in this marketplace with lucrative consulting to industry, speaker panels, boards of directors and visits from industry representatives bearing gifts."

In May 2007, Daniel J. Carlat, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Tufts University, explained further, "Our [psychiatric] field as a whole is progressively being purchased lock, stock, and barrel by the drug companies: this includes the diagnoses, the treatment guidelines, and the national meetings."

CCHR says the vested interests of psychiatrists underlie the profession's vehement championing of dangerous psychiatric drugs to the public, particularly the growing market of children, despite international drug regulatory agencies warning that commonly prescribed psychiatric drugs such as antidepressants or amphetamines can cause suicidal ideation, mania, psychosis, homicidal ideation, heart attacks, stroke and sudden death.

Powerful antipsychotic drugs, which have been exposed for causing diabetes and death in patients, are increasingly being prescribed to children, prompting international concern—particularly given that the drugs are some of the most powerful on the market. Moreover, the subjective nature of psychiatric diagnoses has created a cash cow for psychiatrists who can diagnose anyone as mentally ill based solely on opinion.

Lisa Cosgrove, co-researcher in a 2006 study of the ties between drug companies and psychiatry's billing bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), confirmed the lack of objective science within the psychiatric profession: "No blood tests exist for the disorders in the DSM. It relies on judgments from practitioners who rely on the manual." Cosgrove's study, published in the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, found that a majority (56%) of the panel members responsible for revisions to the DSM had one or more financial ties to drug companies.

To learn more about conflicts of interest in the mental health field, read CCHR's publication, Psychiatric Diagnostic Manual Link to Drug Manufacturers.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights was established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus at the State University of New York, to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights.

You can contact CCHR at 800-869-2247 or email humanrights@cchr.org.

Published: July 03, 2007