Journal accused of 'grabbing headlines'

[Guest guest]

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/health/HealthRepublish_944856.htm

 

Journal accused of 'grabbing headlines'Abbie Thomas

ABC Science Online

 

Friday, 12 September 2003

 

 

(Reuters) " alt= " Blakemore: Young people may dismiss legitimate evidence of drug

risks following the retraction of a paper on the dangers of ecstasy>(Reuters) "

src= " http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/img/health/rave.jpg " border=0>

Blakemore: Young people may dismiss legitimate evidence of drug risks following

the retraction of a paper on the dangers of ecstasy (Reuters)

 

In the wake of the retraction of research on the dangers of the party drug

ecstasy by Science this week, the prestigious scientific journal has been

accused of sacrificing scientific credibility in an effort to grab headlines.

 

Professor Colin Blakemore, leading U.K. brain scientist at Oxford University

made the claim at an impromptu press conference today at the British Association

for the Advancement of Science conference in Manchester this week.

 

Research, by George A. Ricaurte and colleagues published in Science last

September, claimed that recreational levels of ecstasy could cause Parkinson's

disease and even kill. The research, on primates, was widely reported around the

world at the time, but was retracted by Ricaurte in the latest issue of Science.

Ricaurte said he retracted the research after recently discovering that the drug

used to treat the animals in the research was actually methamphetamine (speed),

not ecstasy.

 

However, Blakemore said he wrote to Science just days after publication of the

research last year, to raise objections about the research itself and about

inconsistencies between it and a related press release. For example, he said,

the press release on the research said " 60 to 80 % of neurons in the striatum

were destroyed " , and linked this to Parkinson's disease, however this did not

match what the study itself said.

 

" On reading the paper there is no evidence of any account of neuronal death, "

said Blakemore, who is also chairman of the British Association for the

Advancement of Science. He was also reported on BBC Online earlier this week as

saying that the sheer number of primates killed, or left severely damaged in the

study alone " seemed implausible " .

 

Blakemore described the event as " an interesting parable about the problems of

the controls on science and its possible use for political purposes " : " What

worried me was ... the inexcusable and deliberate hype in the press release to

give the impression that this paper was providing evidence for massive damage to

and death of neurons.

 

He wondered how the paper was peer reviewed and whether the fact that Anti-Rave

Legislation was discussed in Congress at the time was a factor in deciding to

publish this paper: " I don't want to make any accusations...but the sequence of

events makes one wonder whether some motive other than the purity of science was

involved in the dissemination of these results. "

 

Blakemore said both Science and Nature were flooded by papers of very high

quality so the topicality papers often influenced whether they were published or

not: " This was a very topical paper. One has to say: 'Are Science and Nature

doing enough to preserve an appropriate balance between their concerns to

entertain and to guarantee the quality of what they publish'?. "

 

" As far as the safety of ecstasy is concerned - I think the jury is still out, "

he concluded. " I certainly wouldn't be recommending the use of ecstasy to

anyone. What worries me most about this paper is that I suspect it will have an

entirely negative effect on the attitude of young people to the evidence that

they read about drug risks. They will take nothing seriously now. They will feel

themselves to be deceived and they may well dismiss legitimate evidence for this

and other drugs in the future. "

Related StoriesMexican Maize Madness, ABC Science Online, 4 Jul 2002

Revolutionary retraction, News in Science 1 Nov 2002

Research: beware of hype!, News in Science 5 Jun 2002

Quest for top journal fame threatens research, News in Science 20 Mar 2003

Peer review " biased, unjust and...wrong " , News in Science 23 Feb 2000

Ecstasy Use, Life Matters - Radio National, 10 Oct 2002

 

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