The following letter, written by Dr Philip Cowen and Dr Chris Thompson, was published in the BMJ in October 1994 [this, as it happens, being mid-way through the ‘Defeat Depression Campaign’]. The letter was in response to an ‘Education and Debate’ article titled “Prescribing selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors as strategy for prevention of suicide”. This article was by N Freemantle, A House, F Song, J M Mason, and T A Sheldon [It can be accessed read here]
Philip Cowen’s declarations of interest [over the course of his career] can be read here [at least some of them]. The list is however extensive. It would be fair to categorise Professor Cowen as a ‘paid opinion leader’
Dr Chris Thompson was a member of the small “Consensus panel” that formed the basis of the ‘Defeat Depression Campaign’. He also chaired this pharma-sponsored “Satellite symposium” on antidepressant ‘discontinuation syndrome‘.
In October 2018, the Editor of BMJ shared this personal view:
I would go further. Evidence has repeatedly demonstrated that paid opinion leaders promulgate therapeutic recommendations that regularly turn out to be hazardous to patients. Full stop.