NIH-Psychiatrists Behaving Badly

[Guest guest]

November 16, 2008

Science Now - Washington,DC,USA

Psychiatrists Behaving Badly

http://blogs.sciencemag.org/newsblog/2008/11/psychiatrists-b.html

As I was checking email in the press room today I noticed

Insel, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health, come

in and take a seat at a nearby table. He'd arrived a few minutes

early for a press conference at which several National Institutes of

Health (NIH) officials were to sing the praises of -funded research

being presented at the meeting. At the suggestion of a colleague, I

took the opportunity to ask him about the allegations of financial

conflicts of interest leveled at several prominent academic

psychiatrists in recent months.

The allegations arise from an investigation led by Senator

Grassley (R-IA) that has uncovered evidence that several high-

profile researchers violated ethics rules by failing to report

hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting income from

pharmaceutical companies. In one case, NIH suspended a grant to a

psychiatrist, Nemeroff of Emory University in Atlanta, who

allegedly reported only $1.2 million of at least $2.4 million he

received from device and drug companies between 2000 and 2007.

Insel declined to comment on any specific cases, saying only that as

a former Emory faculty member he had recused himself from

discussions regarding Nemeroff. But he said he's concerned about the

issue and the potential for researchers' financial interests to bias

NIH-funded research.

So what's being done about it? According to Insel, NIH is

constrained by 1995 Public Health Service regulations that put the

responsibility for policing financial conflicts of interest squarely

on universities and other institutions. These rules require

researchers to report outside income to their institutions and

obligates institutions to make sure researchers comply and tell NIH

if they don't. " NIH is hemmed in to being there after the fact, "

Insel said.

Should NIH have a more direct role in policing its grantees? Insel

wouldn't answer directly. " The question you and the public should be

asking is--is this the best policy? " Apparently someone at NIH

thinks there might be room for improvement: the agency has announced

that it is preparing an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to

solicit public comments for a possible revision of the regulations.

--Greg

Posted by Grimm on 16 November 2008 at 07:47 PM | Permalink