Neuropsychopharmacology editor resigns after failure to disclose conflict of interest

Charles Nemeroff has decided to resign as editor of the journal Neuropsychopharmacology after he co-authored a favorable article on a chest implant that treats depression and did not disclose his financial ties to Cyberonics, which manufactures the device, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The article, published last month in Neuropsychopharmacology, said that the device - which delivers mild electrical pulses to the vagus nerve in the neck - is "a promising and well-tolerated intervention that is effective in a subset of patients with treatment-resistant depression."

Nemeroff, chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University, and seven of the eight other authors of the article serve as consultants for Cyberonics, and one of the authors was an employee of the company.

In an e-mail, the owner of Neuropsychopharmacology said that Nemeroff decided to resign, "in part, based on the recent adverse publicity to the journal."

Neuropsychopharmacology has published a correction that disclosed the financial ties of the authors of the article to Cyberonics (Armstrong, Wall Street Journal, 8/26).