Creators Of The DSM Busted For Ties To Pharma

As I have pointed out numerous times, most research psychiatrists take money from drug companies. These days, ethical academic journals require them to reveal these conflicts of interest when researchers publish. Now comes news that is both shocking and, frankly, not so shocking: that 56 percent of the psych experts who put together the current version of the DSM had direct financial ties to the pharma industry and that this was not publicly revealed.

That is a fucking travesty, since the DSM constitues the basis of what a Chicago Tribune reporter estimates as a $35 billion market for anti-depressants, antipsychotics and mood stabilizers. The total does not include ADD/ADHD drugs which would take the total to about $40 billion, if not higher.

But the hell with the non-disclosures for a moment. Don't the 30 million to 60 million psych patients in this country deserve a health care system in which the bases of diagnoses are made independent of any conflicts with pharmaceutical companies? You bet they do. These researchers should be ashamed of themselves and so should the American Psychiatric Association, which publishes the DSM, for allowing this situation to persist. The APA promises that for the DSM's next revision in 2011 conflicts will be revealed. I have another suggestion: No one who receives a plug nickel from pharma companies should be allowed to particpate in any way in designing the DSM.