Rampant problem

Found this article on Consumer Reports...

Consumers wary of doctors who take drug-company dollars

and all I could think was, "no shit, really?" I've written several times about psychiatrists being in bed with big pharma and the huge conflict of interest that presents. When I say it though, because I'm "mentally ill", people accuse me of being paranoid and delusional.

While my focus is generally aimed at psychiatry, since that's where most of my healthcare interactions take place, this is definitely a problem that's rampant within the entire medical community. While I don't know if she received any substantial monetary gifts, I know my last primary doctor was easily swayed in her prescribing practices by the drug reps that visited her office with their free trinkets and food. Partly because I witnessed a few meetings she had with them, but also because she came right out and said so.

I went to the ProPublica site mentioned in the article and typed in the name of my last psychiatrist. I'm not at all surprised to find him in the database, nor am I surprised he's in there because he received a lot of money from AstraZeneca...the makers of Seroquel. He's the medical director for the group practice affiliated with the nearest psych hospital (both of which are under the same umbrella corporation and share the same name); and Seroquel is the one drug they push the most, for just about every diagnosis. I find it impossible to believe that the significant compensation he received didn't influence the prescribing practices at his office and at the hospital. So yeah, I'm not just being paranoid.

Right now there are only seven drug companies revealing their payments to doctors. Can't wait until all the drug companies are required to reveal this information.