Questions on Publication Bias and Mice

Assignment 7—Questions on Publication Bias and Mice

(32 pt.)

Listen to a short (13 min) TED Talk by Ben Goldacre: “What doctors don’t know about the drugs they prescribe”, filmed June 2012 at TEDMED 2012.  There is a written transcript of this talk on the website.

https://www.ted.com/talks/ben_goldacre_what_doctors_don_t_know_about_the_drugs_they_prescribe/transcript

Dr. Goldacre is an epidemiologist and wrote a book called Bad Pharma

• Please put your name and the number and title of the assignment on the first page.

• Please use a colored font for your answers.

• Make sure to answer every question within a problem.

• Assignments turned in after 11:59 on the due date are late, unless a person has an excused absence.

Part 1:  Questions on the video:

1. (4 pt) a) Why might an academic journal publish a “fluke” study showing that precognition exists but the same journal wouldn’t publish a study showing that precognition doesn’t exist?

1. b) How is that example analogous to journals that publish results from experiments in cancer research?

2. (4 pt) a. Why didn’t researchers publish an early trial (1980) of the effectiveness of the drug lorcainide to prevent arrhythmia?  b.  What was the effect of not publishing information about this trial?

3. (2 pt) What is “publication bias”? (More explanation is on p. 540-541 in the textbook.)

4. (2 pt) In the example of FDA trials for antidepressants, how did researchers find evidence of publication bias?

5. (1 pt) How much more likely are positive findings to be published than negative findings are? (Positive findings show that a drug is effective.)

6. (2 pt) What solution to publication bias does Dr Goldacre suggest?

Part 2: “Drugs that Work in Mice Often Fail in People”, story from Morning Edition on April 10, 2017.  The site has 6 min. audio and transcript.

http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=522775456

1. (3 pt) Scientists testing drugs have viewed rodents as “prototypical mammals” or “simplified humans”.  Why might that be a dangerous assumption?

1. (3 pt) What is the problem with the idea that environmental conditions that mice experience should be made uniform to reduce variability in an experiment?

1. (3 pt) Why are scientists reluctant to take a risk by using other methods of studying diseases?

At the end of your paper, please write “Number of hours I spent on this homework:” and add an estimate.  Don’t include time that you spent watching the video.  This number won’t affect your grade.