A Letter Writer's Imagination [1]
Submitted by Bob Burton [2] on
A doctor who featured in the PR plans of the drug company GlaxoSmithKline [3] has been appointed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration [4] to a committee reviewing possible links between anti-depressant drugs and suicidality. In December 2004, internal GlaxoSmithKline documents revealed that Dr. Bruce Pollock had been identified by the PR firm Ruder Finn [5] (RF) as one of four psychiatrists who could be approached to submit a letter to a medical journal downplaying withdrawal symptoms experienced by those who stopped taking the drug Paxil. Carl Elliot writes that a letter by Pollock, similar to RF's draft, was published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. "There was no disclosure, no mention of industry funding, no mention of 'editorial assistance,' and no mention of Ruder Finn," Elliot wrote. In 2004, Pollock stated that the letter was his work. However, he said that he "could imagine a scenario where a representative from the makers of Paxil said, 'Could you make this point?'"