Bad Science Leads to Bad Medicine

via the ethical nag:

The medicalization of everyday life

Dr.  Ben Goldacre, a British doctor writing his weekly Bad Science column in The Guardian last fall, told this disturbing cautionary tale.

“In 2007, the British Medical Journal published a large, well-conducted, randomised controlled trial, performed at lots of different locations, run by publicly-funded scientists.  It delivered a strikingly positive result.  It showed that one treatment could significantly improve children’s anti-social behaviour. The treatment was entirely safe, and the study was even accompanied by a very compelling cost-effectiveness analysis. 

“But did this story get reported as front page news? Was it followed up on the health pages, with an accompanying photo feature, describing one child’s miraculous recovery, and an interview with an attractive happy mother with whom we could all identify?

“No. This story was unanimously ignored by the entire British news media, despite their preoccupation with anti-social behaviour, school performance and miracle cures, for one very simple reason: the research was not about a pill. It was about a cheap, practical parenting programme!”

And if it’s just a regular, non-drug, non-medical kind of treatment for bratty kid behaviour – like a cost-effective parenting programme – it’s not going to make money for anybody the way that a diagnosis of oppositional defiant disorder can. read here