Journal Faulted in Publishing Korean’s Claims - NYT

Journal Faulted in Publishing Korean’s Claims - New York Times

Fraudulent stem cell reports that shook the scientific world could have been prevented by extra review procedures, according to a panel appointed by Science, the journal that published the claims.

[...]

The fraud came to light not through any of the formal checking procedures in the scientific process, but because a whistle-blower in Dr. Hwang’s lab spoke to the South Korean television station MBC.

Technorati Tags: c.justification, fraud

Proof Is Scant on Psychiatric Drug Mix for Young - NYT

A report in the New York Times on the efficacy of mixed medication for behavioural and other similar disorders in children:

Proof Is Scant on Psychiatric Drug Mix for Young - New York Times

[...]

The use of two-medicine combinations in children is on much shakier ground. Even for single drugs, the effectiveness of some psychiatric medications in younger patients is questionable: most trials of antidepressants in depressed children, for instance, fail to show any beneficial effect. But hardly any studies have examined the safety or the effectiveness of medicine combinations in children. A 2003 review in The American Journal of Psychiatry found only six controlled trials of two-drug combinations. Four of the six failed to show any benefit; in a fifth, the improvement was offset by greater side effects.

“No one has been able to show that the benefits of these combinations outweigh the risks in children,” said Dr. Daniel J. Safer, an associate professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University and an author of the 2003 review.

If the evidence for two-drug combinations is minimal, for three-drug combinations it is nonexistent, several top experts said.

“The data is zip,” Dr. Hyman said.

[...]

Technorati Tags: medicine, rigour

NYT: What's wrong with a child?

The New York Times runs through the litany of diagnoses offered by the establishment on what ails the children, offering an example:

Paul was a gifted reader, curious, independent. But in fourth grade, after a screaming match with a school counselor, he walked out of the building and disappeared, riding the F train for most of the night through Brooklyn, alone, while his family searched frantically.

It was the second time in two years that he had disappeared for the night, and his mother was determined to find some answers, some guidance.

What followed was a string of office visits with psychologists, social workers and psychiatrists. Each had an idea about what was wrong, and a specific diagnosis: “Compulsive tendencies,” one said. “Oppositional defiant disorder,” another concluded. Others said “pervasive developmental disorder,” or some combination.

Each diagnosis was accompanied by a different regimen of drug treatments.

By the time the boy turned 11, Ms. Williams said, the medical record had taken still another turn — to bipolar disorder — and with it a whole new set of drug prescriptions.

The reason for this bizarre series of explanations and definitions? If it can't be the science, it has to be ... the child!

Psychiatrists have no blood tests or brain scans to diagnose mental disorders. [...] And unlike most adults, young children are often unable or unwilling to talk about their symptoms, leaving doctors to rely on observation and information from parents and teachers.

The solution? We need more professionals, of course!

The confusion is due in part to the patchwork nature of the health care system, experts say. Child psychiatrists are in desperately short supply, and family doctors, pediatricians, psychologists and social workers, each with their own biases, routinely hand out diagnoses.

Technorati Tags: psychology

An Unwelcome Discovery - NYT

Fraud in science is not a new thing. It is worthwhile to record them nonetheless, because each incident serves to:

• maintain a tally as a counterbalance against exclusive claims to character
• the limits of the context of justification idea: in this case, papers (including, I assume, those published in peer reviewed journals) dating back to decade(s) ago had to be withdrawn
• the waste of public moneys and the level of oversight that in reality can be maintained
• the risks posed to the public by all of the above

Below is a segment of a New York Times report:

An Unwelcome Discovery - New York Times

On a rainy afternoon in June, Eric Poehlman stood before a federal judge in the United States District Court in downtown Burlington, Vt. His sentencing hearing had dragged on for more than four hours, and Poehlman, dressed in a black suit, remained silent while the lawyers argued over the appropriate sentence for his transgressions. Now was his chance to speak. A year earlier, in the same courthouse, Poehlman pleaded guilty to lying on a federal grant application and admitted to fabricating more than a decade’s worth of scientific data on obesity, menopause and aging, much of it while conducting clinical research as a tenured faculty member at the University of Vermont. He presented fraudulent data in lectures and in published papers, and he used this data to obtain millions of dollars in federal grants from the National Institutes of Health — a crime subject to as many as five years in federal prison. Poehlman’s admission of guilt came after more than five years during which he denied the charges against him, lied under oath and tried to discredit his accusers. By the time Poehlman came clean, his case had grown into one of the most expansive cases of scientific fraud in U.S. history.

[...]

[ Link ]

Technorati Tags: medicine, fraud

Doctors Rethink Widespread Use of Heart Stents - NYT

Doctors Rethink Widespread Use of Heart Stents - NYT

But now stent sales are falling and some doctors are rethinking their faith in the devices, driven by emerging evidence that the newest and most common type — drug-coated stents — can sometimes cause potentially fatal blood clots months or even years after they are implanted.

The Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that it would hold hearings in early December to consider whether to issue new stent safety guidelines.

The evidence indicates that overuse of stents may be leading to thousands of heart attacks and deaths each year, whether because stents are being used in relatively mild cases where drugs should be prescribed instead, or because patients are receiving drug-coated versions where simpler, cheaper bare-metal devices might work just as well.

There is no question that stents have saved countless lives in the short term by preventing impending heart attacks or opening arteries while an attack is being treated. But neither type of stent, no matter how much better it may make a patient feel, has been shown in rigorous clinical trials to improve long-term survival compared with other forms of treatment.

[...]

The new evidence has added to a long-simmering debate over whether doctors have been too quick to prescribe stenting — whether because drugs would work as well for healthier patients or because bypass surgery might help the sickest ones live longer.

[ Link ]

Technorati Tags: medicine

Breast screening 'may do harm'

Some news on the efficacy of screening for breast cancer:

BBC | Breast screening 'may do harm'

Researchers looked at international studies on half a million women.

They found that for every 2,000 women screened over a decade, one will have her life prolonged, but 10 will have to undergo unnecessary treatment.

UK experts said women over 50 should go for their breast checks, but a screening pioneer raised doubts about the programme's future.

The report, published in the Cochrane Library, involved a review of breast cancer research papers from around the world.


Women invited to screening should be fully informed of both benefits and harm
Dr Peter Gotzsche, researcher

The scientists found mammograms did reduce the number of women dying from the disease.

But they also discovered it was diagnosing woman with breast cancer who would have survived without treatment, meaning they were undergoing unnecessary chemotherapy, radiotherapy or mastectomies.

[...]

Technorati Tags: medicine