Consultant psychiatrists joined forces with mental health service user groups in July to demonstrate against the ‘hijacking’ of mental health care by the pharmaceutical industry.

Demonstrators, including doctors from the Critical Psychiatry Network and members of Mad Pride and the Critical Mental Health Forum, protested at the annual meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in London.

In a letter to college president Professor John Cox, they raised concerns over the increasing sponsorship of college activities by drug companies, including the sponsorship of ‘individuals, local meetings and dinners’.

Consultant psychiatrists Pat Bracken and Phil Thomas, members of the Critical Psychiatry Network, argued that the pharmaceutical industry was unduly shaping the future of mental health care.

‘Psychiatry is a major growth area for the pharmaceutical industry,’ they said. ‘ We are concerned that biomedical frameworks increasingly dominate research and education in psychiatry.’

‘By influencing the way in which psychiatrists frame mental health problems, the industry has developed new markets.’