I have been interested in the responses to this recent BMJ letter: Reversing the rate of antidepressant prescribing . One of the responses was by Dr Torbjörn Waerner. In this response no competing interests were declared [see screenshot below, 24 December 2023]:
Having not previously come across Dr Torbjörn Waerner, I did a simple Google search. The very first hyperlink to come up was to this LinkedIn page which states that Dr Waerner works for GH Research and provides this link to the ‘Company website’.
I am not a member of LinkedIn but Dr Waerner’s page shares this recommendation:
One of the next Google links was to this ResearchGate page:
On the 29th December 2023 I wrote to the BMJ to clarify what seem to be discrepancies in relation to competing interests. On the 2nd January 2024, I noticed that the original response by Dr Torbjörn Waerner had been amended as follows:
I was disappointed to find that no mention of this amendment has been made, let alone an explanation given for it by the BMJ.
Note: Dr Torbjörn Waerner is an ‘affiliated member’ of the Psychedelic Research TWG [ECNP Congress 2024]. Some of the other affiliates are known to be career-long paid opinion leaders.
