Conflicts of interest plague the next international manual of mental disorders
2012-03-14
(Press-News.org) There are concerns that the revised Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM—an internationally recognised classification of mental disorders produced by the American Psychiatric Association), scheduled for publication in May 2013, has been unduly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry despite the APA's instigating a policy of disclosing all financial conflicts of interest.
Writing in this week's PLoS Medicine, Lisa Cosgrove from Harvard University and the University of Massachusetts and Sheldon Krimsky from Tufts University in Boston, USA state that the new disclosure policy has not been accompanied by a reduction in the financial conflicts of interest of DSM panel members. They argue: "Transparency alone cannot mitigate bias. Because industry relationships can create a ''pro-industry habit of thought'', having financial ties to industry such as honoraria, consultation, or grant funding is as pernicious a problem as speaker's bureau participation."
If the DSM is to be unbiased and evidence-based, the authors recommend that all DSM task force members should be free of financial conflicts of interests.
The authors argue: "Individuals who have participated on pharmaceutical companies' Speakers Bureaus should be prohibited from DSM panel membership." They continue: "When no independent individuals with the requisite expertise are available, individuals with associations to industry could consult to the DSM panels, but they would not have decision-making authority on revisions or inclusion of new disorders."
The authors conclude: "These changes would accommodate the participation of needed experts as well as provide more stringent safeguards to protect the revision process from either the reality of or the perception of undue industry influence."
INFORMATION:
Funding: No specific funding was received for writing this article.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Citation: Cosgrove L, Krimsky S (2012) A Comparison of DSM-IV and DSM-5 Panel Members' Financial Associations with Industry: A Pernicious Problem Persists. PLoS Med 9(3): e1001190. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001190
CONTACT:
Lisa Cosgrove
Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics
Harvard University
Cambridge
Massachusetts
United States of America
lcosgrove@ethics.harvard.edu
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2012-03-14
In the second paper in a three-part series on health systems guidance, John Lavis of McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada and colleagues explore the challenge of linking guidance development and policy development at global and national levels. Writing in this week's PLoS Medicine, the authors call for a division of labour between global guidance developers, global policy developers, national guidance developers, and national policy developers, and argue that a panel charged with developing health systems guidance at the global level could best add value by ensuring that ...
2012-03-14
VIDEO:
Kurt Brunden, Ph.D., Director of Drug Discovery at Penn's Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, explains a new Journal of Neuroscience study which shows that the compound epothilone D is effective...
Click here for more information.
PHILADELPHIA – A study published this week in the Journal of Neuroscience shows that the compound epothilone D (EpoD) is effective in preventing further neurological damage and improving cognitive performance in a mouse model of ...
2012-03-14
CHICAGO – Among hospitals in Ontario, Canada, those with higher levels of spending, which included higher intensity nursing and greater use of specialists and procedures, had an associated lower rate of deaths, hospital readmissions, and better quality of care for severely ill hospitalized patients, according to a study in the March 14 issue of JAMA.
Studies have investigated whether higher health care spending produces better patient outcomes and higher quality of care, with conflicting evidence in the United States and other countries. "The extent to which better spending ...
2012-03-14
CHICAGO – Certain mutations of the gene ATRX were associated with age at diagnosis in children and young adults with advanced-stage neuroblastoma, a cancer that grows in parts of the nervous system, according to a study in the March 14 issue of JAMA.
Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial (outside the cranium) solid tumor of childhood and accounts for 15 percent of all cancer-related deaths in children. "Half of the patients (50 percent) with neuroblastoma present with metastatic disease; with current treatment approaches, the age at diagnosis has proven to be ...
2012-03-14
CHICAGO – In a small, preliminary trial, patients with infected necrotizing pancreatitis (severe form of the disease involving devitalized pancreatic tissue) who received a less-invasive procedure, endoscopic transgastric necrosectomy (removal of the pancreatic tissue), had an associated lower risk of major complications and death compared to patients who had surgical necrosectomy, according to a study in the March 14 issue of JAMA.
"Acute pancreatitis is a common and potentially lethal disorder. In the United States alone, more than 50,000 patients are admitted with ...
2012-03-14
CHICAGO – In the E coli outbreak in Germany in May 2011, treatment with azithromycin was associated with a lower frequency of long-term carriage of the bacteria and shorter duration of shedding of the bacteria in stool specimens, according to a study in the March 14 issue of JAMA.
"Since May 2011, a large outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) has caused 3,816 documented infections in Germany, including 845 confirmed cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome [HUS; a condition characterized by the breakup of red blood cells and kidney failure]," the authors ...
2012-03-14
Washington, DC — A compound that previously progressed to Phase II clinical trials for cancer treatment slows neurological damage and improves brain function in an animal model of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study in the March 14 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The findings suggest the drug epothilone D (EpoD) may one day prove useful for treating people with early-stage Alzheimer's disease.
Nerve cells in people with Alzheimer's disease contain tangles — distorted clumps made up of the protein tau. Under normal circumstances, tau helps stabilize structures ...
2012-03-14
A nightly breathing treatment may do more than help people with obstructive sleep apnea get a good night's rest — it may also help prevent heart failure.
In a study published in Circulation: Heart Failure, a journal of the American Heart Association, researchers in the U.K. discovered that moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) can cause changes in the heart's shape and function, similar to the effects of hypertension. These changes include increased mass, thickening of the heart wall and reduced pumping ability.
But, six months after continuous positive airway ...
2012-03-14
Mobile phones could play a valuable role in helping HIV patients to take their medication every day, according to a new Cochrane Systematic Review. The researchers found that patients were less likely to miss doses if they were sent weekly mobile phone text message reminders.
Text messaging is increasingly being used as a means of support in health care, including to help promote attendance at clinics and hospitals, and to increase contact between patients and care workers. There is also some evidence that text messaging helps tuberculosis patients to take their daily ...
2012-03-14
Survival rates for cancer patients may be improved by treatment in specialised cancer centres, according to Cochrane researchers. In a review of recent studies, they found that women diagnosed with gynaecological cancer lived longer when treated in specialist compared to non-specialist units.
In the past, cancer patients were often treated by non-specialist surgeons and hospitals. This is changing and in developed countries, most cancer care is now organised into networks of specialised centres, with on-site experts and specialised nursing staff. This centralised approach, ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Conflicts of interest plague the next international manual of mental disorders
