News Briefs: Link between physicians and drug companies
A survey of doctors who wrote treatment guidelines for common diseases such as diabetes and arthritis found that most had ties to drug companies, but few thought those ties influenced their recommendations.
However, researchers evaluating the survey, published in the Feb. 6 Journal of the American Medical Association, suggest that academicians and physicians may underestimate the impact of their drug company connections. "Unfortunately, bias may occur both consciously and subconsciously, and therefore, its influence may go unrecognized," the researchers say.
Among those who responded to the survey, 58% said they had received research funding from drug companies and 38% said they had served as company employees or consultants. In addition, 59% of the doctors said they had ties to pharmaceutical companies whose drugs were considered in the drafting of the guidelines they wrote.
Of these authors, 96% said the relationships were formed before the guidelines were created. Only 7% thought the ties affected their own guideline recommendations, although 19% thought such ties influenced their co-authors’ recommendations.
The researchers suggest that the results of this study be interpreted cautiously because of its relatively low response rate. The results were based on a survey mailed to 192 doctors involved with creating 44 "clinical practice guidelines" for treating diseases. The guidelines were for the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive lung disease, cardiovascular disease, heart failure, depression, diabetes, peptic ulcers, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, osteoarthritis, and pneumonia. Only 100 doctors provided usable responses, and whether they accurately assessed drug companies’ influence over them is not known, the survey authors said.
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