Last week, I wrote a post about dental products manufacturers underwriting articles, and even entire issues, in dental practice journals. This week, I get to write about pharmaceutical companies writing whole books.
This does not make me happy.
Today's New York Times carries an article by Duff Wilson about a 1999 textbook on the treatment of psychiatric disorders that was apparently written by GlaxoSmithKline (then SmithKline Beecham).
Pharmaceutical companies and medical instrument manufacturers have in the past been accused of playing too important a part in the writing of articles, but "to ghostwrite an entire textbook is a new level of chutzpah," to quote Dr. David A. Kessler, a former FDA commissioner.
The book ("Recognition and Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders: A Psychopharmacology Handbook for Primary Care") was "written" by Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff (who was at Emory University's medical school at the time) and Dr. Alan F. Schatzberg (then at Stanford's medical school). In the book's preface, the "authors" thanked SmithKline Beecham for an "unrestricted educational grant."
According to Wilson's article, Drs. Nemeroff and Schatzberg insist that SmithKline "had no involvement in content."
But a 1997 letter from the associate editorial director of Scientific Therapeutics Information suggests a somewhat different scenario. The letter was attached to a "complete content outline", notes that "we have begun development of the text", names the primary technical writer (not either Dr. Nemeroff or Dr. Schatzberg), and presents a proposed timeline, which includes dates for drafts to be submitted to "co-authors / APPI / sponsor".
"APPI" is the publishing arm of the American Psychiatric Association, and was the publisher of the book.
Guess who "sponsor" is.
Peer-reviewed medical journals now require full disclosure -- as Wilson put it, "whose idea it was, who wrote the first draft, and who edited."
Don't you think medical textbooks should meet those same standards? Of course you do.
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Apparently after trying to research who actually writes Medical Books I found a few forums that suggest Medical students don't even read or study from any of the books. You learn from the Class Syllabus or from the Note-Set the Professors writes. Yeah...this makes me feel warm and fuzzy. It completely astonishes me that people just BLINDLY trust their Doctors. Not me...I personally Ban them...unless I have a broken bone or need some sort of major surgery, Doctors are pretty much useless. Naturopaths are the only way to go for me...they are soooo much more knowledgeable, yet get the bad wrap due to the Media controlled mafia run by Big Pharma
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