XPost: alt.society.mental-health, alt.psychology.personality   
   From: pjbrass@uswest.net   
      
   Letters to the editor here: letters@sptimes.com   
      
   St. Petersburg Times   
   A Times Editorial   
   Medicine research corrupted   
   In print: Tuesday, June 10, 2008   
      
   The pharmaceutical industry's corrupting influence on medical research   
   has reached a new low with a case that has stained the reputations of   
   Harvard University and three of its top researchers in child   
   psychiatry. It took a congressional investigation to uncover a   
   conflict of interest that could violate federal and university rules.   
   As a result, the credibility of a supposed breakthrough in treating   
   childhood bipolar disease is now in doubt.   
      
   Dr. Joseph Biederman and two colleagues — who have promoted the use of   
   antipsychotic drugs to treat bipolar children — withheld information   
   about payments they were getting from drugmakers. While the Harvard   
   faculty members were doing their research, some of it paid for by   
   taxpayers, they were quietly taking millions of dollars from drug   
   companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly and others that   
   profited from the findings, the New York Times reported.   
      
   The researchers were supposed to report earnings in excess of $10,000   
   as consultants for drug companies, but they failed to do so. Even   
   after Senate investigators forced Biederman to disclose his income, he   
   reported receiving less than the drug companies say they gave him. In   
   all, the three researchers accepted drug company payments of at least   
   $2.6-million over the past seven years.   
      
   Did such hefty inducements affect the outcome of their research? It's   
   a question that so far is unanswered. The doctors' findings have been   
   influential but controversial, with 500,000 bipolar children being   
   prescribed antipsychotic drugs. Some doctors say the medication saves   
   young lives, though the side effects can be serious. Others say it is   
   an experimental treatment that hasn't been proved effective over time.   
      
   There is no doubt what effect the scandal has had on the medical   
   research field, which relies on a voluntary honor system. "The price   
   we pay for these kinds of revelations is credibility, and we just   
   can't afford to lose any more of that in this field," said Dr. E.   
   Fuller Torrey of the Stanley Medical Research Institute.   
      
   Neither the pharmaceutical industry nor the medical researchers they   
   try to influence can be trusted under the current system. Sen. Charles   
   Grassley, R-Iowa, wants to create a national registry of drug research   
   to keep track of such payments. Maybe a new bureaucracy isn't the   
   answer, but something has to be done before people are injured and the   
   public loses all trust in medical research.   
      
   Link to editorial:   
   http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/article614734.ece   
      
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