Psychiatric Group Faces Scrutiny Over Drug Industry Ties

Commercial arrangements are rampant throughout medicine. In the past two decades, drug and device makers have paid tens of thousands of doctors and researchers of all specialties. Worried that this money could taint doctors’ research plans or clinical judgment, government agencies, medical journals and universities have been forced to look more closely at deal details.
In psychiatry, Mr. Grassley has found an orchard of low-hanging fruit. As a group, psychiatrists earn less in base salary than any other specialists, according to a nationwide survey by the Medical Group Management Association. In 2007, median compensation for psychiatrists was $198,653, less than half of the $464,420 earned by diagnostic radiologists and barely more than the $190,547 earned by doctors practicing internal medicine. But many psychiatrists supplement this income with consulting arrangements with drug makers, traveling the country to give dinner talks about drugs to other doctors for fees generally ranging from $750 to $3,500 per event, for instance.

Psychologists in state ask for authority to prescribe

Missouri psychologists and their patients are asking lawmakers for the authority to write certain prescriptions for mental health disorders, saying it will improve access to badly needed care.
It's a question of service and need, say advocates with Missouri Families for Access to Comprehensive Treatment.
The state has fewer than 400 licensed psychiatrists, the only mental-health professionals in Missouri allowed to prescribe drugs, advocates say. And, they add, waiting times to see a psychiatrist ranges from two weeks to eight months, especially in underserved rural and inner-city communities.