One of the stories in the news today is about a clinical trial involving a new drug that was conducted in a school without informed consent of participants or their parents.

According to the BBC web pages it was on an anticonvulsant, which has sedative effects and was prescribed for epilepsy, is no longer widely in use. It was to be a “double blind” trial, with a control group given a placebo, and another group given the drug. The drug would be administered to disruptive pupils aged 15 and older.  According to the news source, the trial went ahead in 1968, with boys given the drug for six months. There is no record of the outcome in the documents, nor was any published paper in medical journals found.

It is this type of story which damages the reputation of many involved in clinical research; the lack of transparency and then the lack of reporting the outcome. It is really important to highlight this type of story but more important is the ability of researchers now to respond and highlight how much times have changed and to use this information to promote clinical research. I am awaiting the responses from the experts…..