Conflicting interests in Toronto: anatomy of a controversy at the interface of academia and industry.

In December 2000, the University of Toronto breached a contract it held with me, initiating a sequence of events that has led to a public letter to the University from a large number of senior figures in the psychopharmacology community, protesting against the infringement of academic freedom involved, and a first-ever legal action seeking redress for violation of academic freedom. This case has been intertwined from the start with a longer running debate about the possibility that the SSRI group of antidepressants may have the potential to trigger suicidality or other serious effects in a subgroup of takers. And this specific issue connects to concerns about conflict of interest in the domain of therapeutics, as well as in science in general, the ghostwriting of scientific articles, and a series of other hot-spots on the interface between academia and industry.