[Conflict of Interest Guidelines of the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology: Current Status and Considerations in the Area of Psychiatry].

In 2011, the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology released the Guidelines on Conflict of Interest(COI) in Clinical Research and detailed regulations. According to the Guidelines, the COI Committee has been engaged in COI management for a one-year trial period. The members of the Society have to disclose their COIs at the time of presentations, manuscript submissions, and publications; the board and committees members have to disclose their COIs to the President of the Society; and the President reports these COI disclosures to the COI Committee. In this article, we provide a summary of this year's COI disclosures: among the 455 board and committees members, 297 were without COIs (68.5%); 98 (excluding the following two problematic cases) disclosed COIs (23.1%, excluding the following two cases); two cases were discussed regarding whether or not they were problematic (0.44%); 11 (2.4%) cases have not yet been reviewed because of a delay in disclosure; and 25 cases have yet to be disclosed (5.5%). Responding to serious COI-related affairs in other disease areas, public interest in the COI ssue has been increasing. Additionally, the Japanese Pharaceutical Manufacturers Association (JPMA) implemented Transparency Guidelines, and companies are disclosing their payments for lectures or manuscript fees to individual researchers. We should foster a deeper understanding of the concept of COI and discuss COI management in society more extensively.