Psychiatry Under the Influence: Institutional Corruption, Social Injury, and Prescriptions for Reform by Robert Whitaker & Lisa Cosgrove

Author:Robert Whitaker & Lisa Cosgrove [Whitaker, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781137516039
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2015-04-22T21:00:00+00:00

The findings . . . were not consistent with views and expectations about medication effects held by many investigators and clinicians in the field. That is, long-term benefits from consistent treatment were not documented; selection bias did not account for the loss of relative superiority of medication over time; there was no evidence for “catch up” growth; and early treatment with medication did not protect against later adverse outcomes.

This could be said to be a record of good science. The three-year results confounded expectations, and the authors had published that finding. They had written that medicated children had deteriorated in year three compared to the unmedicated children. They reported that outcomes for the medicated children remained worse at year six. The investigators subsequently published an article telling of how the poor outcomes for the medicated youth could not be attributed to “selection bias.” The details were all there in the research literature, including the fact that the worse outcomes for the medicated children could not be easily explained away. To complete this record of good science, all the investigators needed to do was clearly communicate that finding to the medical community and to the public. Then the MTA trial would serve as an example of psychiatry putting duty to its patients ahead of its guild interests, and doing so even though Jensen and nine other MTA investigators had extensive financial ties to pharmaceutical companies, including those that manufacture ADHD medications (Table 7.1).

Table 7.1 Financial disclosures of MTA investigators (Number of ties to pharmaceutical firms)

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