Chicago psychiatrist received nearly $500K from AstraZeneca.
As a Chicago attorney who has seen too many lives destroyed by careless medical care, I am discouraged by the following story. Doctors who are essentially allowed to work for drug companies are often affected by a misalignment of incentives with their patients. This practice leads to substandard medical care and should not be allowed.
The AAJ news brief (11/11) included a Chicago Tribune (11/11, Jewett, Roe) story surrounding “reports that AstraZeneca paid Chicago psychiatrist Dr. Michael Reinstein $490,000 over a decade to travel the nation promoting its best-selling antipsychotic drug, Seroquel. In return, Reinstein provided the company a vast customer base: thousands of mentally ill residents in Chicago-area nursing homes.” During this same period of time, Dr. Reinstein was further accused of overmedicating patients; one Florida lawsuit alleging that Dr. Reinstein told patients that Seroquel would help them lose weight, “a claim which runs counter to established research” that links antipsychotic drugs with substantial weight gain.
Clearly, the practice of stealthily compensating physicians for promoting drugs can, and often does, cause Doctors to prescribe medications with their own financial interest in mind. At a minimum, doctors should be required to disclose such economic interest to their patients.
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