"Vermont officials disclosed Tuesday that drug company payments to psychiatrists in the state more than doubled last year, to an average of $45,692 each from $20,835 in 2005," reports the New York Times. The payoffs honorariums come in the form of fees for speeches, trips, marketing, and so forth -- and doesn't even include the cash that goes into free samples, or doctor's staffs, or anything not directly related to enriching the physician.
The effects are sadly predictable. "[T]he more psychiatrists have earned from drug makers, the more they have prescribed a new class of powerful medicines known as atypical antipsychotics to children, for whom the drugs are especially risky and mostly unapproved." But remember: You don't want guv'mint burracrats deciding your care. That's intruding on the sacred bond between you, your doctor, and the pharmaceutical salesperson.
