YOU'LL NEED MORE THAN THAT TO KILL QUACKERY:

Doctors rule out link between vaccine and autism (Press Association, September 10, 2004, The Guardian)

There is no evidence to support a link between the controversial MMR jab and the development of autism in children, researchers said today.

Concern about a reported link between the triple vaccine and the disorder has led to a drop in the number of parents getting their children vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella in the UK.

But research funded by the Medical Research Council today concluded that the team could find no evidence of a link between autism and MMR.

Controversy over the jab was first sparked after a small-scale study published in the Lancet and led by Dr Andrew Wakefield suggested a link with autism and bowel problems in 1998.

After that, various large-scale studies failed to find any evidence of a link and Dr Wakefield's own research was later discredited.

FDA Urged Withholding Data on Antidepressants: Makers Were Dissuaded From Labeling Drugs as Ineffective in Children (Shankar Vedantam, September 10, 2004, Washington Post)

The Food and Drug Administration has repeatedly urged antidepressant manufacturers not to disclose to physicians and the public that some clinical trials of the medications in children found the drugs were no better than sugar pills, according to documents and testimony released at a congressional hearing yesterday.

Regulators suppressed the negative information on the grounds that it might scare families and physicians away from the drugs, according to testimony by drug company executives. For at least three medications, they said, the FDA blocked the companies' plans to reveal the negative studies in drug labels, and in one case the agency reversed a manufacturer's decision to amend its drug label to say that the drug was associated in studies with increased hostility and suicidal thinking among children.

"Why would FDA require a company to remove stronger labeling?" demanded an incredulous Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) yesterday, at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations. "FDA should want to encourage a company to do that kind of thing."

Janet Woodcock, FDA's deputy commissioner for operations, responded that regulators believe the jury is still out on the drugs. The negative trials, she said, did not mean the medications were ineffective.

It's an epidemic of diagnosis, not of illness.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 10, 2004 8:52 AM