Bad Research, Bad Bad Research!

The Wall Street Journal reported that a prominent Massachusetts anesthesiologist fabricated 21 medical studies that claimed to show benefits from painkillers like Vioxx and Celebrex, according to the hospital where he worked. http://tinyurl.com/badresearch .  This brings to light the problem with research that is funded by drug companies.

I remember many years back hearing one of my mentors, Dr. Patrick Gentempo talking about a research study stating that there is an overwhelmingly higher incidence of a positive outcome for a research project when it is funded by a pharmaceutical company (BMJ. 2003;326:1167-1170).  One report, a review of 30 studies, based on a MEDLINE search from January 1966 to December 2002 and an EMBASE search from January 1980 to December 2002, found that trials sponsored by a pharmaceutical company were four times more likely to show positive results for that company's drug than were studies funded by other supporters. This report was published in 2002 and evidently did little to curb the problem.

One of the biggest complaints M.D.s have with regard to Chiropractic is "Where is the research?"    Check out the list of peer-reviewed journals  http://www.chiroindex.org/publications_peer.php .  I guess the research done to condone the drugging of our society is not all that solid itself!  Bad research, bad bad research!