Qi Spot

Much hullabloo is raised by the opponents of Chinese medicine regarding the supposed lack of research and/or safety profile of Chinese materia medica.  I had often said that a) research does exist, b) Chinese materia medica are used in combination with each other precisely to reduce toxicity and enhance therapeutic benefit and c) I find myself distrusting pharmaceutical company-backed “studies”.  This news article (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123672510903888207.html?mod=loomia&loomia_si=t0:a16:g2:r1:c0.0270612:b22894832) from March only serves to strengthen my opinions.

Again, some significant excerpts:

Top Pain Scientist Fabricated Data in Studies, Hospital Says

By Keith J. Winstein and David Armstrong

A prominent Massachusetts anesthesiologist allegedly fabricated 21 medical studies that claimed to show benefits from painkillers like Vioxx and Celebrex, according to the hospital where he worked.

Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, Mass., said that its former chief of acute pain, Scott S. Reuben, had faked data used in the studies, which were published in several anesthesiology journals between 1996 and 2008…

…The hospital has asked the medical journals to retract the 21 studies, some of which reported favorable results from the use of painkillers like Pfizer Inc.’s Bextra and Merck & Co.’s Vioxx — both since withdrawn — as well as Pfizer’s Celebrex and Lyrica. Dr. Reuben’s research work also claimed positive findings for Wyeth’s antidepressant Effexor XR as a pain killer. And he wrote to the Food and Drug Administration, urging the agency not to restrict the use of many of the painkillers he studied, citing his own data on their safety and effectiveness…

…Dr. Reuben had been a paid speaker on behalf of Pfizer’s medicines, and it paid for some of his research….

…Jacques E. Chelly, the head of acute interventional postoperative pain service at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said he was “shocked” by the news of the retractions. Dr. Reuben “was very well respected,” Dr. Chelly said.

He added that the situation has prompted his hospital to review the protocols it uses to treat patients for pain, because Dr. Reuben’s work was so influential in establishing them. He said the hospital was now conducting its own study to verify the efficacy of drugs that Dr. Reuben claimed were effective painkillers….

Painkiller drug that was later withdrawn

Me, I’d rather take Zhang Zhongjing, Sun Simiao, Li Dongyuan, Li Shizhen, et al, whose motivation for researching their herbs and formulas was quite frankly, to cure patients that others couldn’t.  No drug company grants, no motivation to fake data, nothing.

I am not accusing drug companies of encouraging this sort of behavior.  However it is clear that the motivation of some scientists is not the benefit of humanity but the benefit of their own careers and bank accounts.  Bite not the hand that feeds you, and give the hand more reason to feed you.

I applaud the hospital for doing self checks and revealing the truth when found.  All researchers, even those in Chinese medicine, should be more than ready to admit such discrepancies.  (For the record, many Chinese researchers from the 60s admitted to faking acupuncture results.  Glad that that’s taken cared of also.)

Source:

Winstein, Keith and Armstrong, David.  “Top Pain Scientist Fabricated Data in Studies, Hospital Says” Wall Street Journal Online Edition 11 March 2009.  24 October 2009 <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123672510903888207.html?mod=loomia&loomia_si=t0:a16:g2:r1:c0.0270612:b22894832>