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JAMA and a Tale of Perverted Science
The sacred cow of medicine walks in mud
Doctor Jonathan Leo’s story is riveting:
- Research published in the JAMA conluded that all stroke victims should be prescribed anti-depressants
- However the researchers failed to point out that the drug under investigation, Escitalopram, worked no better than problem-solving psychotherapy.
- Furthermore, one of the authors of the paper failed to point out that he had a conflict of interest owing to past work he’d done for the makers of Escitalopram. This info, by the way, was available via a simple Google query.
To make a long story short, after Dr. Leo flagged the issue to JAMA and gave them every opportunity to clarify the matter, he published a letter about it in the British Medical Journal. The letter put no blame on JAMA but instead focused on the troubling nature of such a COI.
Our letter was published without any negative commentary regarding JAMA itself, and included the following statement: “We are fully aware that JAMA is concerned about conflicts of interest and has taken a leading role in promoting policies to benefit the medical community. We are pleased to report that we learned at the end of business on Thursday (3/5/09) that the JAMA Editorial Staff has looked into this matter and will be discussing it in the forthcoming March 11 issue.“
JAMA lost it. Although they could not point to any factual inaccuracies, Leo was asked to retract the letter. When he refused, they pressured him through his dean. Reportedly, the JAMA told him he was “banned for life” and that he, his students, and his school would be sorry.
They are now instituting a gag rule preventing anyone from publishing info about COI’s in their articles. Not that they have the power to enforce the rule except, of course, for limiting access to one of the most prestigious medical journal in America.
It is worth reading his story in full.
Read it via TidyRead if you find the page layout unbearable.
And now for the rant:
Forgive me while I go off on a tangent.
I am appreciative of the good work that the likes of Hitchens and Dawkins do to bring reason to the masses and to point out the potential of religious institutions for hypocrisy and manipulation. But science is so rife with hypocrisy that it strikes me we would be better served by cleaning house and focusing attention on our own wayward high priests.
There could be no better place to start than with the “science” funded by Big Pharma. The quality of research and the cherry picking of results which goes into the gospel selling everything from anti-depressants to statins is truly appalling. And for the holy grail of science “the peer reviewed article” to be hijacked in the way that JAMA has just done, is, in my opinion, a complete erosion of the high ground science claims for itself.
Is there really any difference between one person refusing meds because it will attract body thetans and another taking meds because of media hype over the latest cooked study? In both cases it’s misplaced faith in a flawed authority.
It’s time for the good priests to take the bad ones to task.
- Related:
- NYT March 10, 2009:
Doctor’s Pain Studies Were Fabricated, Hospital Says
The researcher, Dr. Scott S. Reuben, an anesthesiologist in Springfield, Mass., who practiced at Baystate Medical Center, fabricated data in some or all of the 21 journal articles dating from at least 1996… The drug giant Pfizer underwrote much of Dr. Reuben’s research from 2002 to 2007
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Brilliant Proposal to Revitalize Post Office
It’s Green
With the advent of e-mail, the role of Post Offices has deminished considerably over time.
Solution Proposed: Sell Weed
On the plus side, it is expected that the Post Office’s amazing ability to drive away customers will help drive down cannabis use.
The director of the alcohol and drug service at St Vincent’s Hospital, Alex Wodak, said Australia needed to learn from the tobacco industry and the US Prohibition era in coming to terms with his belief that cannabis use would replace cigarette consumption over the next decade. “The general principal is that it’s not sustainable that we continue to give criminals and corrupt police a monopoly to sell a drug that is soon going to be consumed by more people than tobacco,” he said.
“I don’t want to see that [industry] fall into the hands of tobacco companies or rapacious businessmen.
“I’d like to see it fall into the hands of the failed business people Australia seems so good at producing or the Australia Post that seems so successful in driving away customers.”
The report did not state whether or not he was a user.
Tipping the Scales: Bad Smoke
Mary Jane put on some weight
Earlier this month, the New England Journal of Medicine reported on an outbreak of lead poisoning among young people in Leipzig Germany.
None of the patients had any of the usual environmental risks for lead poisoning so the surge was a mystery.
However, after much investigation, a common link was found: they all were pot smokers.
When some patients provided the investigators with samples of their stash, one showed visual evidence of lead particles (see photo below).
The dealers were adding lead to their dime bags to increase the selling weights. Some 100 people ended up needing treatment for lead poisoning.
Legalisation of marijuana would eliminate such risks.
Alzheimers Drug Shows Amazing Promise
Patients respond within minutes
Nevertheless, the results aren’t always so dramatic:
