New York Times Calls For Crack Down On Research Conflicts

On Sunday, the New York Times' editorial page went after the twin conflict of interest sagas of Harvard child psychiatrist Joseph Biederman and leading bipolar disorder researcher Fred Goodwin, conflicts that have been well-documented on this site as well. The editorial called for action:

"More evidence has emerged of appalling conflicts of interest that throw into doubt the advice rendered and the research performed by two prominent psychiatrists who have received substantial funding from the pharmaceutical industry. The revelations prove, once again, the need for universities and professional societies to crack down on conflicts of interest, and for Congress to pass legislation that will bring hidden conflicts into the open."

I don't have much to add here, except to note that it pleases me greatly that the paper has editorialized on this matter and that, all in all, these kinds of conflicts shouldn't only be in the open, they simply shouldn't exist. We've got to fund psychiatric research and all medical research in this country differently.

My own view is that no researcher taking over, say, $10,000 a year from pharma companies to do research or make speeches on behalf of their products should turn around and pass themselves off as unbiased scientists. Their papers should be rejected by professional journals and the media should decline to quote them and patients of every stripe should rebel against their evidence. Psychiatrists make plenty of money as it is already. If they can't live on $180,000, the average yearly earnings of a psychiatrist in the US, then they need to pursue another career.

Doctors are supposed to have their patients' best interests at heart, but it's clear to me that a discouragingly large number of psychiatrists have been more interested in their own bank accounts than in their patients' well-being. That's got to change.

I certainly hope that Congress, the various medical societies and research universities heed the call for a crack down on these conflicts of interest. The public has been fed enough bull already and it's got to stop.