A DISTURBING number of the experts who help write psychiatry’s most influential diagnostic manual have financial ties to drug companies, raising concerns about the independence of diagnostic advice in the manual.
While such possible conflicts of interest are not uncommon, psychiatry is of particular concern because diagnosis is so tricky. Physicians rely heavily on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, which categorises psychiatric illnesses and their diagnostic criteria. “The existence of disease categories validates the need for drugs,” says Mildred Cho, a bioethicist at Stanford University in California. “Companies have an incentive to influence those creating…
