Psychiatrists may cut some ties to drug firms

Dr. Daniel Carlat knows all too well how easy it is for doctors to be seduced by drug industry money.

In 2002, he earned $30,000 in speaking fees to promote Wyeth's antidepressant Effexor XR to fellow doctors.

"I quit doing it because I felt I was beginning to push some ethical boundaries in terms of what I was saying and what I was not saying," said Carlat, a psychiatry professor at Tufts University in Boston who believes doctors need to cut their financial ties with drug companies.

"My own story was really nothing special," he said in a telephone interview. "I made $30,000 for the year, which is less than some of these doctors make in a weekend."

Carlat and other psychiatrists have been studying the issue and have proposed that the American Psychiatric Association cut back on medical education seminars funded by drug companies.

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