Rapid Responses to:

LETTERS: Richard Tiner, Linda Edwards, Adam Jacobs, Philip Sambrook, Judy Stenmark, Jan Karmali, Matthew Anderson, Alison Karasz, Peter Lurie, Sheila McKechnie, Joanna Moncrieff, Phil Thomas, Ray Moynihan, Iona Heath, and David Henry The pharmaceutical industry and disease mongering BMJ 2002; 325: 216 [Full text]

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Vested interests

Graeme Mackenzie   (7 August 2002)

Vested interests 7 August 2002
Graeme Mackenzie, General Practitioner Maryport, Cumbria CA15 9RG Send response to journal: Re: Vested interests	I enjoyed the letters responding to Moynihan's article on disease mongering which was in the best BMJ for ages entitled Too Much Medicine. I hark back to a debate on positive discrimination for men with regard to medical school entry. In that case we had robust denunciation of positive discrimination from ,,,, and I looked to the bottom of the letters.. women and more pointedly from women's medical associations.In the former example we have a robust denounciation of Moynihan's article from... and I look to the bottom of the letters... The National Osteoporosis Society and Osteoporosis Australia. The osteoporosis people and the women are in a difficult position because how can they objectively look at these issues when their livliehood depends on the arguments not being true. As a busy, overworked GP seeing more and more people attending the doctor with no symptoms other than awareness of potential disease how can I objectively look at Moynihan's arguments: I have a vested interest in them being true as I will earn the same money and have to work less hard. Perhaps I should form the National No Vested Interest Society but would that still be a vested interest. Or perhaps only if I was paid to be its president. However, if by travelling the country to proselytise my arguments I avoided 4 surgeries a week I would have become a vested interest. Graeme Mackenzie GP Maryport, Cumbria CA15 9RG