Healthy Skepticism Library item: 15782

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Corderoy A.
Psychiatrists boycott RANZCP congress
Psychiatry Update 2009 May 28
http://www.psychiatryupdate.com.au/article/psychiatrists-boycott-ranzcp-congress/483255.aspx

Abstract:

Two South Australian psychiatrists have boycotted the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists’ annual congress because of what they say is inappropriate drug industry sponsorship. Dr Jon Jureidini – Chair of the Healthy Skepticism lobby group – and Professor Malcolm Battersby, who are both on the Adelaide branch of RANZCP, had submitted a proposal to host the annual congress without drug industry sponsorship. Dr Jureidini told Psychiatry Update that they believed that the annual conference could be held in a less “opulent and expensive” manner and had gathered undertakings from various potential sponsors in a bid to cover the cost of the event without drug company sponsorship. “We offered them a conference that would have been indistinguishable from ordinary conferences except you wouldn’t have drug company’s sponsorship logos all over it,” he said. However, the RANZCP national branch told him that they were declining the proposal because it is against college policy to “discriminate against” potential sponsors. Dr Jureidini said that he, along with Professor Battersby, were worried about the increasing influence of pharmaceutical company sponsorship on psychiatry, as well as the lack of disclosure in RANZCP itself. “For example, I thought it was reasonable to know any declarations of interest of people on the college’s psychotropic drugs committee but I was not allowed that information… is not even available to college members,” he said. Dr Jureidini said that he will be attending one panel, a presentation by lawyer Julian Burnside, but other than that he had decided not to attend the conference….