I was watching an instalment of my favourite medical soap, a long- running British one called _Casualty_ (which I believe considerably predates American ones, such as ER). One of the plot lines concerned a Parkinson's patient who was hospitalized after taking ecstasy (in Canada we're a few years behind the current British episodes).
According to the story, there are reports of Parkinson's patients dramatically improving mobility after taking ecstasy. It worked for this patient, but something went wrong, and it was suggested that she may have received a bad batch. I had never heard of this. I turned to Pubmed, and discovered that there is small and contradictory literature on the subject, one paper suggesting that it may be beneficial, at least in rats, and another that it may instead cause Parkinson's. This seemed like a poor inspiration for a story line in a programme which tries to be accurate. So I googled. I discovered that the depiction on TV was a fair representation of two reports on BBC news in 2001 and 2002 at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1169980.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2409755.stm Both, of course, warn that ecstasy is a dangerous drug. But in 2003, it was found that the claim that it caused brain damage was a crock, due to incompetence in research (see Holden C. Retraction. Paper on toxic party drug is pulled over vial mix-up. Science. 2003 Sep 12;301(5639):1454). Yet the BBC, at a time when the report was still believed, said that this meant that researchers who reported that ecstasy could help with PD "had no plans to carry out further studies on humans". If that's still the case, it sounds like a striking illustration of the way in which bad research can impede promising work. It may also be an illustration of the way in which claims for beneficial effects of street drugs are suppressed (cf marijuana). And while I'm on the subject of medical soaps, can I complain about the US programme _Grey's [sic] Anatomy_? This is the one which features hot surgical interns getting it on with hot surgeons, and should really be named _Sex and the Single Surgeon_ (except that one isn't). It has a continuing story line which involves a strikingly irresponsible depiction of Alzheimer's. According to the programme, in this disorder you are age-regressed to a time when, as a married doctor at the top of your profession, you were carrying on a hot affair with another doctor. The only sign that you have Alzheimer's is that you think you're 40 years younger than you are. It makes Alzheimer's seem quite enjoyable. Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Department of Psychology Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Dept web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy TIPS discussion list for psychology teachers at http://faculty.frostburg.edu/psyc/southerly/tips/index.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
