Are doctors really looking out for patients best interests?

Last night, I listened to an NPR show about GlaxoSmithKlein (GSK), choosing to no longer pay doctors to sell its drugs. "What", I thought to myself, "wasn't that illegal?" Turns out it wasn't illegal, but increasingly frowned upon. See link below if you'd like to listen.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/12/17/251965775/why-glaxo-wont-pay-doctors-to-sell-its-drugs-anymore

This morning, I found the referenced website from the show (http://projects.propublica.org/) and found out that my psychiatrist was paid $46,249 over the last 3 years by the drug company who makes my depression medications. While I recognize that meeting with drug companies is not unusual, since it helps doctors stay abreast on the latest advances in medicine, I am distressed by the amount he was paid for speaking at their conferences.

Sure, I was suspicious before about the incentives a psychiatrist has for encouraging their patients to stop medications. It was a relatively easy gig to be paid for. I showed up to his office 4 times a year. He was paid by my insurance and my co-pays, for a 2-3 minute visit that consisted of asking "how are you doing?", "are the meds ok?", and "are you mailing in prescriptions?" I saw the paperwork he filled out for my health care provider, which he would efficiently complete while I was in the office. Maybe there were a few more forms in the background that he and/or his staff would likely have to keep for record-keeping; but I was a profitable patient on the whole.

Often I would ask him his thoughts about my coming off of the meds, and he would respond "well they're working, so let's just go another few months." Or, I'd ask about the long-term side-effects, and similarly he'd respond "well they're working and there's no long-term research showing harm." Hmm. Hindsight is 20/20. So, it's easy for me to look back and wonder why I didn't question the same lame answers for a decade. It was routine -- heck some visits I didn't even bother to ask, I just wanted the prescription so I could get on with my life.

Yet after a month and I still have some side-effects. Certainly not as bad as before. But I'm still having crazy dreams, I wake up at 4am every morning wide awake and in a panic, and the feeling ofthe boogey-man being right around the corner never fully leaves me. Of course I believe with time all of this will subside. Nonetheless, I am frustrated that within our medical system I may just be one of countless "patients" unwittingly subjecting themselves to a whole lot of brain manipulation with questionable positive outcomes. Particularly when I realize just how much the practitioners in the industry are being paid for people like me to be their lab rats.

<le sigh>