August 6, 1999

At its July meeting in Washington, D.C., the APA Board of Trustees approved several position statements addressing critical issues facing psychiatrists and their patients. One of the statements is now official APA policy, while the other three will come before the Assembly in November.

Position Statement on Psychotherapy and Managed Care: This statement, which gained the Assembly's approval in May, describes the problem of managed care companies' denying their subscribers access to psychotherapy by psychiatrists and why this treatment modality must remain an integral part of psychiatric practice. It pledges APA "to work vigorously to end the pattern of managed care exclusion of integrated psychotherapy services by all available means: through research, education, negotiation. . . with the managed care industry, legislation, and litigation."

The Assembly will take action on these position statements at its November meeting:

Position Statement on Attending Psychiatrists in Charge of Hospitalized Psychiatric Patients: This statement emphasizes that when patients are seriously ill enough to require hospitalization, "the admission, examination, diagnosis, treatment, and ultimate discharge of such patients must be directly provided or supervised by an attending psychiatrist." It notes that failure to do so could jeopardize the health of the patient.

Position Statement on Discriminatory Employer-Sponsored Disability Insurance: This statement condemns insurance policies that include "arbitrary and discriminatory" benefits when the disabling condition is mental rather than physical. The statement says that APA "encourages innovation in disability programs to have them focus on medical and functional capacities instead of separating physical and mental definitions of disability. . . ."

Position Statement on the Publication of Findings From Clinical Trials: This statement is intended to guide psychiatrists and other researchers deciding whether to participate in clinical trials of medications funded by pharmaceutical companies or other sponsors. It addresses the issue of these companies' refusing to publish research findings because they do not want the efficacy outcomes known and urges researchers to make sure their agreements allow for "free and unfettered access to all findings from the study and allow the publication of those findings." The statement emphasizes that research-participation consent forms "should not discuss helping to improve the care of others as a benefit of research participation unless there is a commitment to publish negative as well as positive findings."