Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2009
Abstract
A recent letter to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) from Sen Chuck Grassley about the APA’s financial relationship with pharmaceutical companies raises concerns about undue industry influence. By instituting a disclosure policy for DSM-V, the APA took a halting first step in restoring public trust in the most influential text on psychiatric taxonomy in the world. Unfortunately, the APA’s efforts at creating a conflict of interest (COI) policy have failed to ensure that the process for revising diagnostic and therapeutic guidelines is one that the public can trust. The need for more safeguards was evidenced when the APA reported that of the 27 task force members of DSM-V, only 8 reported no industry relationships.2 The fact that 70% of the task force members have reported direct industry ties—an increase of almost 14% over the percentage of DSM-IV task force members who had industry ties—shows that disclosure policies alone, especially those that rely on an honor system, are not enough and that more specific safeguards are needed.
Recommended Citation
Cosgrove, Lisa and Harold J. Bursztajn, "Toward Credible Conflict of Interest Policies in Clinical Psychiatry." Psychiatric Times (January 1, 2009).
Publisher
UBM Medica LLC
Included in
Bioethics and Medical Ethics Commons, Mental Disorders Commons, Pharmacy Administration, Policy and Regulation Commons
Comments
This article appears in the Psychiatric Times, published by UBM Medica LLC: http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/articles/toward-credible-conflict-interest-policies-clinical-psychiatry.