The relationship between psychiatry and pharma is getting renewed attention as a result of Sen. Charles Grassley's ongoing investigation. The probe began in June focusing on three pediatric psychiatrists whose incomes had been greatly supplanted by a multitude of consulting relationships. An article in Saturday's New York Times focused on "Dr. Alan F. Schatzberg of Stanford, whose $4.8 million stock holdings in a drug development company raised the senator’s concern."
Schatzberg is president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association.
On Friday, the APA emailed members saying that it had already "empaneled a working group charged to review all APA pharmaceutical revenues, sort them into categories; and provide the Board with options for ending pharmaceutical support in each category and the implications for the activities they currently fund." In 2006 pharma funded about 30 percent of APA's $62.5 million revenues, according to the Times.
The story is zipping across the internet and some of the buzz is misquoting the Times. One blog, The Alliance for Human Research Protection states incorrectly, "Last year, drug manufacturers provided the APA with at least $62.5 million."
Simultaneously, several states are launching their own probes. Pharmalot notes a current investigation of payments to all Vermont doctors found :
Of the top 100 recipients, psychiatrists received the highest level of payments, and 11 psychiatrists received a total of about $626,000, or approximately 20 percent of the total value of payments. The average amount received by psychiatrists was nearly $57,000.
Cardiovascular specialists received the second largest amount, followed by those in internal medicine.
Fom the web:
FiercePharma
