Who Really is Writing All Those Scientific Studies?

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udies.htm

 

Who Really is Writing All Those Scientific Studies?

 

It's an open secret in medicine that many of the articles that appear

in medical journals, often purporting to be written by well-known

academics, are actually written by unacknowledged ghostwriters in the

pay of drug companies.

 

These " seemingly objective articles " are usually actually part of a

marketing campaign to promote a product or draw attention to the

condition it treats.

 

The Role of Medical Journals

 

However, questions about the role of medical journals have increased

in the wake of the New England Journal of Medicine's admission that a

2000 article it published about Vioxx painkiller omitted information

about heart attacks among those taking the drug. One element that is

being looked at sharply is the " ghostwriting " practice and the medical

journals' rules of author disclosure.

 

Biased Information

 

Increasingly, the practice of medical ghostwriting is being criticized

on the grounds that it could hurt patients by giving doctors biased

information. Drug companies claim that they're providing a service to

academic researchers, who may not be skilled writers, and do not

intend that the articles be biased.

 

An Unknown Number of Articles

 

An analysis found that 10 percent of articles on studies sponsored by

the drug industry disclosed help from a medical writer. However, often

the practice is not disclosed. An informal poll found that 80 percent

of freelance medical writers had written articles that did not mention

their contributions.

 

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette December 13, 2005

 

Dr. Mercola's Comment:

 

This is not a new issue as I wrote about this last year, however this

is one of the primary ways the drug companies are able to manipulate

and brainwash conventional medicine practitioners.

 

They influence the very heart and center of the most respected medical

journals and are able to create dogmas and beliefs that support the

drug paradigm because it is blessed by paragon of scientific

integrity, the peer-reviewed prestigious medical journal.

 

No matter what the industry claims, undisclosed authors paid by the

multi-national drug companies have no chance of remaining unbiased.

Why bother to conceal their identities otherwise?

 

Hopefully, the news about the erroneous and biased Vioxx study that

Merck foisted off on the New England Journal of Medicine will lead

journals and scientists to take a good hard look at the practices of

conventional medicine. Not surprisingly, another journal -- Annals of

Internal Medicine -- found itself in similar hot water earlier this

year when one of the " authors " of a 2003 Vioxx study it published

confessed he had little to do with the research.

 

Drug companies claim they're providing a " service " to lesser writers

by providing ghostwriters. What they're actually doing is trying to

spin the data and brainwash physicians to be puppets for their agenda.

 

A 1999 document that was disclosed in a lawsuit described Pfizer's

publications strategy for its antidepressant Zoloft. The document

included 81 different articles proposed for journals, promoting the

drug's use for problems ranging from panic disorder to pedophilia.

 

The only problem was, for some articles, the name of the author was

listed as " to be determined, " even though the article was listed as

already completed. They weren't helping out an existing team of

scientists who happened to be talentless at writing -- Pfizer wrote

the article, then shopped around for scientists to put their name on

it to give it a veneer of credibility.

 

More evidence, folks, it always pays to be skeptical and observant

when it comes to your health, especially with all the money drug

companies throw at researchers as well as you in the form of

advertising. When it comes to drugs like Vioxx, your life could

genuinely be at stake.

 

That is one of the reasons why I publish this newsletter. To give you

another view to consider as an alternative to the one being fostered

on you by tens of billions of dollars of marketing influence.

 

Related Articles:

 

Medical Journal Drug Ads Often Misleading

 

$30 Billion Vioxx Recall -- The Dangers, Powerful Lessons & Safe

Alternatives that Everyone Must Know

 

Finally Medical Journal Admits the Truth About Bird Flu