Healthy Skepticism Library item: 5952

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Publication type: news

Armstrong D.
Medical Journal Editor to Quit In Wake of Disclosure Oversight
Wall St Journal 2006 Aug 25
http://online.wsj.com/public/us

Full text:

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Medical Journal Editor to Quit
In Wake of Disclosure Oversight
By DAVID ARMSTRONG
August 25, 2006 6:14 p.m.

The editor of the journal Neuropsychopharmacology is stepping down following
a flap over the medical journal’s failure to disclose that the authors of a
paper reviewing a new treatment for depression had financial ties to the
treatment’s developer.

One of the authors of the article was the editor himself, Charles B.
Nemeroff, who is the chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral
Sciences at Emory University in Atlanta. In an email Friday, the owner of
the medical journal said Dr. Nemeroff had decided to step down as editor.
They said his decision was “in part, based on the recent adverse publicity
to the journal.”

Attempts to contact Dr. Nemeroff for comment were unsuccessful.

The medical journal is published by the American College of
Neuropsychopharmacology, a medical society comprised of scientists and
physicians who study the brain and behavior. In an email to its members, the
college said Dr. Nemeroff had been reappointed as editor in May.

Last month, the journal published a review of a new treatment for depression
in which a small device is implanted in the chest to deliver mild electrical
pulses to the vagus nerve in the neck. The Food and Drug Administration
approved the device, made by Cyberonics Inc. of Houston, for use in treating
depression last year. The authors conclude that vagus nerve stimulation is
“a promising and well-tolerated intervention that is effective in a subset
of patients with treatment-resistant depression.”

Of the nine authors of the review, eight are academic researchers who serve
as consultants to the company. None of those relationships were disclosed.
The ninth author is an employee of Cyberonics, which was reported in the
review article. On July 31, the journal published an online correction
disclosing the consulting relationships.

Approval of the device was controversial and a U.S. Senate investigation
found that FDA reviewers opposed use of the device for depression because
Cyberonics didn’t demonstrate reasonable assurances of safety and
effectiveness.

Dr. Nemeroff, in a previous interview, said there was “no intent whatsoever
on my part or any of my co-authors to hide the fact we were working in
collaboration with Cyberonics.”

He also says the identification of one author as a Cyberonics employee as
well as a notation that the report was supported by a Cyberonics grant made
clear the review was connected to the company. Dr. Nemeroff says he serves
on two Cyberonics advisory boards but declined to say how much he was paid.

Write to David Armstrong at david.armstrong@wsj.com