Author Interviews, Medical Research Journals, Mental Health Research / 24.03.2026
Behind the Paywall: Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest in Leading Psychiatry Journals
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Francis J. Gesel[/caption]
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Francis J. Gesel
Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Scranton, Pennsylvania
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Conflicts of interest (COIs) in psychiatric research represent a longstanding ethical challenge, given the close relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and psychiatry. Journals require authors to disclose these relationships, while the U.S. Open Payments database, created under the Sunshine Act, provides a record of payments from manufacturers to physicians. However, whether physician-authors in psychiatry’s most influential journals consistently disclose these relationships had not been systematically assessed. We focused on the American Journal of Psychiatry (AJP) and JAMA Psychiatry (JAMA-PSY), two of the highest-impact journals in the field, to evaluate the prevalence and magnitude of undisclosed financial COIs.
Francis J. Gesel[/caption]
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Francis J. Gesel
Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Scranton, Pennsylvania
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Conflicts of interest (COIs) in psychiatric research represent a longstanding ethical challenge, given the close relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and psychiatry. Journals require authors to disclose these relationships, while the U.S. Open Payments database, created under the Sunshine Act, provides a record of payments from manufacturers to physicians. However, whether physician-authors in psychiatry’s most influential journals consistently disclose these relationships had not been systematically assessed. We focused on the American Journal of Psychiatry (AJP) and JAMA Psychiatry (JAMA-PSY), two of the highest-impact journals in the field, to evaluate the prevalence and magnitude of undisclosed financial COIs.
Dr. Patel[/caption]
Rima Patel, MD
Assistant Professor, Division of Hematology/Oncology
The Tisch Cancer Institute
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The 21-gene Oncotype DX Recurrence Score (RS) and 70-gene MammaPrint (MP) assays provide prognostic information for distant recurrence and are used to guide chemotherapy use in hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative early breast cancer (EBC). Previous reports have demonstrated racial differences in the prognostic accuracy of the RS. In both the TAILORx and RxPONDER trials, Black women with low genomic risk (RS 0-25) had a higher recurrence risk than White women. In another study using the NCDB database,
Dr. Tesi[/caption]
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
RJ Tesi M.D.
CEO and Founder of
Valentina Paz[/caption]
Valentina Paz, M.Sc
Dr. Sundström[/caption]
Johan Sundström, MD, PhD
Professor of Epidemiology at Uppsala University
Professorial Fellow at The George Institute for Global Health
Cardiologist at Uppsala University Hospital
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: High blood pressure, hypertension, is a growing global health challenge. Over the last 30 years, the number of people with hypertension has doubled, and it is estimated that around a third of adults aged 30-79 have the condition - a total of 1.28 billion people worldwide. Untreated hypertension can lead to kidney disease, heart disease, and stroke, accounting for 11.3 million deaths in 2021 alone. A small minority get their blood pressure under control with drug therapy, and some studies indicate that as little as half are taking their blood pressure medications as intended. Is this because the drugs' effectiveness and side effects differ between different individuals? If so, there would be a substantial risk that patients will not get their optimal medication on the first try, with poor blood pressure lowering and unnecessary side effects as a result.
In a new clinical trial in Sweden, it was studied whether there is an optimal blood pressure medication for each person, and thus a potential for personalized blood pressure treatment. In the study, 280 people with high blood pressure tried out four different blood pressure drugs on several different occasions over a total of one year.
Yuxia Wei[/caption]
Yuxia Wei | PhD Student
Unit of Epidemiology
Institute of Environmental Medicine
Karolinska Institutet
Stockholm | Sweden
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Diabetes is traditionally known for having two types (type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes). However, it is becoming increasingly clear that diabetes is much more complex than this traditional classification. Several attempts have been made to address this heterogeneity and in 2018, a Swedish ground-breaking study proposed that there are five distinct subtypes of diabetes in adults. They have been replicated in different populations and it has been shown that there are differences between the subtypes in terms of genetics and risks of complications. Another way of elucidating the relevance of these subtypes is to investigate whether the influence of known risk factors for diabetes is different on different subtypes. Our study is one of the first attempts to address this. We used a study design known as Mendelian randomization, to investigate the influence of childhood obesity on these diabetes subtypes that typically occur after age 35. This work was a collaboration between Karolinska institutet in Stockholm, University of Bristol in the UK and Sun Yat-Sen University in China.
Sneha Vaddadi[/caption]
Sneha Vaddadi, BS
Department of Medical Education
Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Scranton, Pennsylvania
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The prescription stimulants methylphenidate, amphetamine, and lisdexamfetamine, classified as Schedule II substances, are sympathomimetic drugs with therapeutic use widely used in the US for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Changes in criteria for diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in 2013 and approval of lisdexamfetamine for binge eating disorder in 2015 may have impacted usage patterns.
The goal of this study1 was to extend upon past research2 to compare the pharmacoepidemiology of these stimulants in the United States from 2010–2017, including consideration to variation within geographic regions, the Hispanic population, and the Medicaid population.
Dr, Ferguson[/caption]
Michael Ferguson, PhD
Instructor in Neurology | Harvard Medical School
Lecturer on Neurospirituality | Harvard Divinity School
Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Over 80% of the global population consider themselves religious with even more identifying as spiritual, but the neural substrates of spirituality and religiosity remain unresolved.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings? Where is this circuit located in the brain? What other effects does this circuit control or influence?
Response: We found that brain lesions associated with self-reported spirituality map to a human brain circuit centered on the periaqueductal grey.
Scott Gray[/caption]
Scott Gray: Founder and CEO of Clincierge, the global leader in patient support services for clinical trials. With a team of patient coordinators around the world, Clincierge helps patients and their caregivers navigate the logistics of clinical trial participation, including prepaid air travel, ground transportation, and lodging as well as rapid reimbursements, translation and interpretation services, and individual solutions for trial participants in remote locations or with complex medical needs. For more information, visit clincierge.com.
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