Jul. 13, 2006 - 20:03 MDT

HOW AND WHERE ?

Maybe it was just a dream of this boy, but when I was a kid the words, integrity, ethics and honesty had deep meanings. But of course I expect I was wide eyed innocent even then. But it seems to me that nowadays those lines have been so blurred that one can't tell friend from enemy without a program.

There is an article by Lindsey Tanner of Associated Press in this morning's Rocky Mountain News anent this very thing, quoted in full here:

MEDICAL JOURNAL BURNED AGAIN BY RESEARCHERS' NONDISCLOSURE

CHICAGO -- "For the second time in two months, the Journal of the Americn Medical Association said it was misled by researchers who failed to reveal financial ties to drug companies."

"The studies validity -- and the journal's reputation -- are at stake, and JAMA is tightening the policies for researchers as a result."

"This is costing us," said Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, editor-in-chief "It's costing us really good articles and God knows what it's costing us in ads."

"But DeAngelis said her main concern is the impact on readers, who need to know about researchers' financial conflicts of interest to properly evaluate their studies."

"The latest incident, disclosed in letters to the editor and a correction in Wednesday's journal, involves a study showing that pregnant women who stop taking antidepressants risk slipping back into depression."

"Most of the 13 authors have financial ties to drug companies, including antidepressant makers, but only two of them revealed their ties when the study was published in February."

"Antidepressant use during pregnancy is controversial and some sudies have suggested that the drugs could pose risk to the fetus."

"For readers to be able to make informed judgments about potential biases in this study, they should have been made aware of all of these associations and potential conflicts of interest," Dr.Adam Urato of Tufts University - New England Medical Center wrote in a leetter to JAMA editors."

"The earlier incident involved a study in the May 17 journal that said rheumatoid arthritis patients taking Humira or Remicade faced risks of developing several cancers and serious infections."

"Study co-author Dr. Eric Matteson of Mayo Clinic has worked with Remicade's maker in developing a similar new drug, and he and co-researcher Dr. Tim Bongartz have been paid consultants to Abbott for unrelated work. The ties were not disclosed until after publication."

"Matteson called the omissions "errors of oversight," but journal editors asked Mayo to investigate."

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Appears to me that we are and have been swimming in a very gray area for years now.

I remember the first Physician's Desk References I laid my eyes on. Each medication was listed, its chemical formula, its purpose, its action and toward the end of the item the various side effects noted. To top it off it gave percentages for each side effect. Nowadays one has to have a book on the side effects of drugs to get an idea.

Gives me a quivery feeling, making me wonder who is writing those side effect books and how accurate they are ?

HOw can we as private persons decide whether the medicine prescribed is because some "researcher - paid by a drug company wrote up the paper ? Is this why so many people are having troubles with prescription meds ?

Then, how does a drug researcher earn a living ? Is he a free-lancer or does he work for a drug company ? These doctors who write these papers, are they being paid for being full time staff on a university's payroll and accepting money from drug companys to do favorable research for them ? ? ? ? ?

I think possibly the line determining ethics, honesty and integrity has been badly bent by those academics who accept money from drug companies to do research on something of theirs.

And of course the drug industry has all kinds of lobbyists fighting to keep any and all regulations from having any effect on said drug companies -- or that's how it looks to me, anyhow.

As in all aspects of life what used to be real life in my childs mind should be a reality today. We need people with strong senses of all three together to help keep things on an even keel.

But to find even one with those qualities, we must act HOW AND WHERE ? . . . . . . . . . .

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