Abbreviation
APA
October 16, 1844[1]
- William Maclay Awl
- Luther V. Bell, Amariah Brigham
- John S. Butler
- Nehemah Cutter
- Pliny Earle
- John M. Galt
- Thomas Story Kirkbride
- Isaac Ray
- Charles Harrison Stedman
- Francis T. Stribling
- Samuel White
- Samuel B. Woodward
52-2168499[3]
Washington, DC, US
37,400
Rebecca W. Brendel[4]
- American Psychiatric Association Foundation
- American Psychiatric Political Action Committee
- American Psychiatric Association Insurance Trust
- APA Wharf Holdings LLC[6]
$50,557,392[3]
$48,736,684[3]
236[6]
850[6]
- Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane (1844–1891)
- American Medico-Psychological Association (1892–1919)[1]
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world.[7] It has more than 38,000[7] members who are involved in psychiatric practice, research, and academia representing a diverse population of patients in more than 100 countries. The association publishes various journals and pamphlets, as well as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The DSM codifies psychiatric conditions and is used mostly in the United States as a guide for diagnosing mental disorders.
The organization has its headquarters in Washington, DC.[8]
Drug company ties[edit]
In his book Anatomy of an Epidemic (2010), Robert Whitaker described the partnership that has developed between the APA and pharmaceutical companies since the 1980s.[33] APA has come to depend on pharmaceutical money.[33] The drug companies endowed continuing education and psychiatric "grand rounds" at hospitals. They funded a political action committee in 1982 to lobby Congress.[33] The industry helped to pay for the APA's media training workshops.[33] It was able to turn psychiatrists at top schools into speakers, and although the doctors felt they were independents, they rehearsed their speeches and likely would not be invited back if they discussed drug side effects.[33] "Thought leaders" became the experts quoted in the media.[33] As Marcia Angell wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine (2000), "thought leaders" could agree to be listed as an author of ghostwritten articles,[34] and she cites Thomas Bodenheimer and David Rothman who describe the extent of the drug industry's involvement with doctors.[35][36] The New York Times published a summary about antipsychotic medications in October 2010.[37]
In 2008, for the first time, Senator Charles Grassley asked the APA to disclose how much of its annual budget came from drug industry funds. The APA said that industry contributed 28 percent of its budget ($14 million at that time), mainly through paid advertising in APA journals and funds for continuing medical education.[38]
The APA receives additional funding from the pharmaceutical industry through its American Psychiatric Association Foundation (APAF), including Boehringer Ingelheim, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, among others.[19]
Controversies[edit]
In the 1964 election, Fact magazine polled American Psychiatric Association members on whether Barry Goldwater was fit to be president and published "The Unconscious of a Conservative: A Special Issue on the Mind of Barry Goldwater". This led to a ban on the diagnosis of a public figure by psychiatrists who have not performed an examination or been authorized to release information by the patient. This became the Goldwater rule.[39][40]
Supported by various funding sources, the APA and its members have played major roles in examining points of contention in the field and addressing uncertainties about psychiatric illness and its treatment,[41] as well as the relationship of individual mental health concerns to those of the community. Controversies have related to anti-psychiatry and disability rights campaigners, who regularly protest at American Psychiatric Association offices or meetings. In 1970, members of the Gay Liberation Front organization protested the APA conference in San Francisco.[42] In 2003 activists from MindFreedom International staged a 21-day hunger strike, protesting at a perceived unjustified biomedical focus and challenging APA to provide evidence of the widespread claim that mental disorders are due to chemical imbalances in the brain. APA published a position statement in response[43] and the two organizations exchanged views on the evidence.
The APA's DSM came under criticism from autism specialists Tony Attwood and Simon Baron-Cohen for proposing the elimination of Asperger's syndrome as a disorder and replacing it with an autism spectrum severity scale. Roy Richard Grinker wrote a controversial editorial for The New York Times expressing support for the proposal.
The APA president in 2005, Steven Sharfstein, praised the pharmaceutical industry but argued that American psychiatry had "allowed the biopsychosocial model to become the bio-bio-bio model" and accepted "kickbacks and bribes" from pharmaceutical companies leading to the over-use of medication and neglect of other approaches.[44]
In 2008 APA was the focus of congressional investigations on how pharmaceutical industry money shapes the practices of nonprofit organizations that purport to be independent. The drug industry accounted in 2006 for about 30 percent of the association's $62.5 million in financing, half through drug advertisements in its journals and meeting exhibits, and the other half sponsoring fellowships, conferences and industry symposiums at its annual meeting. The APA came under increasing scrutiny and questions about conflicts of interest.[45]
The APA president in 2009–10, Alan Schatzberg, was identified as the principal investigator on a federal study into the drug mifepristone for use as an antidepressant being developed by Corcept Therapeutics, a company Schatzberg had created and in which he had several million dollars' equity.[46]
In 2021, the APA issued an apology for its historical role in perpetuating racism.[47]
