There’s big news in America’s mental health world, and it’s certainly not that doctors are expensive. Nothing new about that. The average cost of an hour with a psychiatrist, whether you pay out of pocket or it’s billed to insurance, is around $300.

The big news is this: a shocking research report published June 20 by JAMA Internal Medicine found that, from a pharmaceutical company’s perspective, all doctors, including psychiatrists, actually can be really cheap, as in a hamburger-fries-and-a-Coke cheap.

The study examined the prescribing patterns of nearly 300,000 doctors who prescribed four drugs, including antidepressants, and found that those who accepted even one free lunch, often under $20, from a pharmaceutical company can be easily swayed to change their prescribing habits.

Instead of writing scripts for the generic version of medications, doctors who got some one-time free grub were more apt to write prescriptions for specific brand-name drugs.

None of this is good for patients. I’m an advocate for mental health patients, not for the companies or doctors who have their own lobbyists to look out for their interests. Patients with mental health issues — and patients in general — are often faced with a big dilemma: pay for food and gasoline or pay for meds. People with mental illness are often poor and have problems working full time, and paying for pricey pills is the last problem with which they need to deal. You’d think doctors would be looking out for their patients, right? Well if they got a free lunch, they may have someone else’s interests in mind.

The first time I went to a psychiatrist at UCLA, he prescribed me medication that cost well in excess of $100. I was in shock when the UCLA pharmacist gave me the bill. Instead of paying, I walked down the hall, knocked on the psychiatrist’s door and asked if there was something else he could prescribe or if there was another drugstore nearby. His answers were “no” and “I don’t know.”

I drove along nearby streets until I found a pharmacy, which likewise sent me off with a bottle of pills so pricey they wrapped it in thick canvas material and put a lock on the top so I couldn’t stash them in my pocket and walk out without paying. The cashier had to get the manager to take off the lock.

It’s one thing for pills to be overpriced. That’s a complaint I and many others have about pharmaceutical companies. But to have doctors involved in the mix, on these companies’ expense sheets, is another problem. Doctors are required to declare any potential conflict of interest and who is paying them when giving a speech or publishing an article. It’s a matter of ethics. They are not, however, required to tell their patients the same information, including whether they are getting paid to prescribe certain meds. This is wrong. They should be required to let everyone know who’s writing their checks and explain to patients the reason for this disclosure.

I personally ask any doctor prescribing me anything whether they are on the payroll of a pharmaceutical company.

Bottom line, though: What is best for the patient? I could care less about the annual income of doctors and pharmaceutical companies. I’d argue it’s in the patient’s best interest to always get generic medications prescribed when they are available. I also wish the length of patent protection would be reduced so generic medication could reach the market sooner, the budget for mental health research would be increased exponentially and that state-funded mental health researchers got paid what they’re worth so fewer of them leave their government jobs, lured away by the private sector.

As I write about frequently, I lived in Russia, where medicine and the pharmaceutical industry was state-funded. It worked fine for me. There was no profit in making medications.

The cost of my lithium, the main drug I and many others take for bipolar disorder, was less than $5 a month. Lithium is a salt, a natural element found on the Table of Elements. It’s not a chemically invented drug; it’s found in lithium mines. The largest lithium mine in the United States is in Nevada, by the way. It’s mostly used for batteries, but a percentage of it is used for mental health purposes. Without insurance, I was told it would cost me about $50 a month. Someone’s making a profit just because they can.

Fortunately, there are doctors who buy their own turkey melts and make a point to avoid all potential conflicts of interest. I just wish all were like that.

There’s a new website that allows patients to find out if their doctors get money from pharmaceutical companies, how much and from whom. It’s called Dollars for Doctors. Check it out.