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Psychiatrists and the pharmaceutical industry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Adam Moliver
Adam Moliver*
Affiliation:
Mental Health Services for Older People, Charlton Lane, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL53 9DZ
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Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 29 , Issue 6 , June 2005 , pp. 231
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Copyright © 2005. The Royal College of Psychiatrists

I am sure I am not the only doctor to be offended by Dr Shooter's extreme comments about the relationship between psychiatrists and the pharmaceutical industry. I am not for sale, but I am of course open to influence – although is there much to choose within a class of drugs anyway?

Why is he sickened by the sight of doctors having a few days off to enjoy peer support and education (which might or might not be focused in some way). We get precious little informal time together otherwise.

There is another view: doctors are part of society, we are not morally superior. I live in a society where there is advertising and private industry: there is no clear moral argument for the pharmaceutical industry and doctors to be different from other people.

Dr Shooter's well-known eloquence has been taken to extremes in this matter. There seems to be a growing trend for links to industry to be regarded as intrinsically and inevitably bad, instead of one of many influences to which we are subject.

I have received sponsorship and hospitality from several companies. I minimise my own bias by having as many different mugs as possible!

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