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Electroshock Ethics - June, 2008
Essential Medicines - April, 2008
Data Sharing - Mar. 2008

Sound Ethics

Sound Medicine

Sound MedicineSound Medicine is produced by the Indiana University School of Medicine and WFYI Public Radio. Host Barbara Lewis interviews medical experts on a wide range of current issues in medicine, from Alzheimer research to the West Nile virus. Joining Ms. Lewis each week are faculty co-hosts from the IU School of Medicine: Drs. Steven Bogdewic, David Crabb, Eric Meslin, Kathy Miller, and Ora Pescovitz.

The program educates and encourages listeners to make sound health decisions. It's also a forum for health issues affecting local communities.

Sound Ethics

Sound Ethics is a monthly feature of Sound Medicine. Eric Meslin, Director, Center for Bioethics, joins host Barbara Lewis and others to discuss the ethical implications of the latest medical news and research. Past shows have addressed issues ranging from euthanasia to medical errors.

Podcasts of recent and archived shows can be downloaded from the Sound Medicine website - http://soundmedicine.iu.edu/

Topic Guides

Electroshock Ethics - June 1, 2008

Although electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is currently used successfully in a clinical setting, the therapy has a controversial past. In addition to the many negative portrayals of ECT in film and fiction, including Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, public perception may have been influenced by the questionable experimental use of the therapy in medical research during the post-WWII era. These experiments included those which were partly funded by the CIA during the 1950s and the early 1960s as a part of the agency's MK-ULTRA program. The MK-ULTRA program explored methods of mind-control by experimenting with LSD and ECT. Donald Ewen Cameron, as Director of the Allan Memorial Institute of McGill University, oversaw an academic research project partly funded by this CIA initiative. Cameron's research (1957-1964) involved the use of high-powered ECT treatments with mentally ill, anxious, and depressed patients. Cameron experimented with ECT to "depattern" the brain and, thereafter, used other techniques, called "psychic driving", in an attempt to re-pattern the brain.

In this episode of Sound Ethics, Eric Meslin talks with Dr. Steven Jay, a professor of public health at the IU School of Medicine. In 1965, while Dr. Jay was a medical student on a visiting fellowship at McGill, he witnessed the end of this use of ECT. A brief bibliography (below) focusing on the use of ECT in D. Ewen Cameron's research is followed by a broader list of publications addressing the ethical issues of electroconvulsive therapy in medicine and research.

    D. Ewen Cameron, ECT and the CIA:

      Cleghorn RA and Silverman B. D. Ewen Cameron, M.D., F.R.C.P.[C]. CMAJ 1967; 97 (16):984-6. PMID:4861213 [Free Full Text]

      Farnsworth CH. Canada will pay guinea pigs of 50's. NY Times (Print) 1992:A9. PMID:11647931 | CiteULike [Excerpt]

      Moreno JD. Undue risk: secret state experiments on humans. New York: W.H. Freeman and Co., 2000. Find book ...

      Rubenstein LS. Psychiatric experimentation: the lessons of history. J Calif Alliance Ment Ill 1994; 5 (1):22-4. PMID:11653310

      Rubenstein LS. Standards of accountability for consent in research. Account Res. 1996;4(3-4):197-206. PMID:11654515 | CiteULike [Excerpt]

      Schell BH. The ominous shadow of the CIA has imprinted itself on the brain research community. J Calif Alliance Ment Ill 1994; 5 (1):38-40. PMID:11653317

      Sibbald B. Quebec tackles electroconvulsive therapy issue. CMAJ 2003; 168 (12):1583. PMID:12796349 [Free Full Text]

      Thomas G. Journey into madness: the true story of secret CIA mind control and medical abuse. New York: Bantam Books, 1989. Find book ...

      Weinstein HM. Psychiatry and the CIA: victims of mind control. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, 1990. Find book ...

    ECT - Ethical Issues, History, and Attitudes:

      Fink M. Convulsive therapy: a review of the first 55 years. J Affect Disord 2001; 63 (1-3):1-15. PMID:11246075 [Abstract]

      Fink M. Is the practice of ECT ethical? World J Biol Psychiatry 2005; 6 Suppl 2:38-43. PMID:16166022 [Abstract]

      Gazdag G, et al. Regressive and intensive methods of electroconvulsive therapy: a brief historical note. J ECT 2007; 23 (4):229-32. PMID:18090693 [Abstract]

      Hilton C. An exploration of the patient's experience of electro-convulsive therapy in mid-twentieth century creative literature: a historical study with implications for practice today. J Affect Disord 2007; 97 (1-3):5-12. PMID:16887198 [Abstract]

      Hirshbein L and Sarvananda S. History, power, and electricity: American popular magazine accounts of electroconvulsive therapy, 1940-2005. J Hist Behav Sci 2008; 44 (1):1-18. PMID:18196545 [Abstract]

      Lauber C, et al. Can a seizure help? The public's attitude toward electroconvulsive therapy. Psychiatry Res 2005; 134 (2):205-9. PMID:15840423 [Abstract]

      Lebensohn ZM. The history of electroconvulsive therapy in the United States and its place in American psychiatry: a personal memoir. Compr Psychiatry 1999; 40 (3):173-81. PMID:10360611 [Abstract]

      Linington A and Harris B. Fifty years of electroconvulsive therapy. BMJ 1988; 297 (6660):1354-5. PMID:3146363 [Free Full Text]

      Reisner AD. The electroconvulsive therapy controversy: evidence and ethics. Neuropsychol Rev 2003; 13 (4):199-219. PMID:15000226 [Abstract]

      Rose D, et al. Patients' perspectives on electroconvulsive therapy: systematic review. BMJ 2003; 326 (7403):1363. PMID:12816822 [Free Full Text]

      Rose DS, et al. Information, consent and perceived coercion: patients' perspectives on electroconvulsive therapy. Br J Psychiatry 2005; 186:54-9. PMID:15630124 [Abstract]

      Taylor S. Electroconvulsive therapy: a review of history, patient selection, technique, and medication management. South Med J 2007; 100 (5):494-8. PMID:17534086 [Abstract]

      Thompson JW, et al. Use of ECT in the United States in 1975, 1980, and 1986. Am J Psychiatry 1994; 151 (11):1657-61. PMID:7943457 [Abstract]

    Search the Literature:



Improving Access to Medicines in Poor Countries - April 6 and May 4, 2008

This Sound Ethics topic guide addresses shows broadcast on two dates – April 6 (Sound Ethics: Medicines in the Developing World) and May 4, 2008.

Premise: The WHO estimates that 10 million people die annually (mostly in developing countries) because they do not have access to existing medicines and vaccines. There is a growing consensus that both private industry and universities have a role in improving access to drugs within low- and middle-income countries.

In the April 6 episode Eric Meslin, Ph.D., discusses with Alan Breier, M.D., Vice President for Medical and Chief Medical Officer, Eli Lilly and Co., the role of industry in improving access to essential medicines. Breier also shares Lilly's efforts to extend access to medication, efforts exemplified by the Lilly MDR-TB Partnership, a program that works with the WHO to provide medications and training for the prevention and treatment of Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis.

In the forthcoming May 4 episode, Eric Meslin, Ph.D, discusses with Caroline Rouse, a second year student at the Indiana University School of Medicine, the role universities can play in building better access to medicines. Rouse, a member of the Indiana University chapter of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, also shares the aims and activities of this advocacy group.

    Essential Medicines:

      Hogerzeil HV. Essential medicines and human rights: what can they learn from each other? Bull World Health Organ. 2006 May;84(5):371-5. Epub 2006 May 17. PMID: 16710546

      MSF Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines. http://www.accessmed-msf.org/

      Pécoul B. New drugs for neglected diseases: from pipeline to patients. PLoS Med. 2004 Oct;1(1):e6. Epub 2004 Oct 19. PMID: 15526054

      Pécoul B, Chirac P, Trouiller P, Pinel J. Access to essential drugs in poor countries: a lost battle? JAMA. 1999 Jan 27;281(4):361-7. PMID: 9929090

      Quick JD. Essential medicines twenty-five years on: closing the access gap. Health Policy Plan. 2003 Mar;18(1):1-3. PMID: 12582103

      Quick JD, Hogerzeil HV. Ten best readings in ... essential medicines. Health Policy Plan. 2003 Mar;18(1):119-21. PMID: 12582115

      World Health Organization. Topics: Essential Medicines. http://www.who.int/topics/essential_medicines/en/

      World Health Organization. WHO Model Lists of Essential Medicines. Accessed March 2008 from http://www.who.int/medicines/publications/essentialmedicines/en/

      World Health Organization. Equitable access to essential medicines: a framework for collective action. WHO Policy Perspectives on Medicines. March 2004. [PDF - 135 KB]

    Patents, Pharmaceuticals and the Role of Universities:

    Patents, Pharmaceuticals and the Role of Industry

      Attaran A. How do patents and economic policies affect access to essential medicines in developing countries? Health Aff (Millwood). 2004 May-Jun;23(3):155-66. PMID: 15160813 | [PDF - 252 KB]

      Calon F. Nonpatentable drugs and the cost of our ignorance. CMAJ. 2006 Feb 14;174(4):483-4. PMID: 16477060

      Danzon PM, Towse A. Differential pricing for pharmaceuticals: reconciling access, R&D and patents. Int J Health Care Finance Econ. 2003 Sep;3(3):183-205. Review. PMID: 14625999 | [PDF 124 KB]

      Novas C. What is the bioscience industry doing to address the ethical issues it faces? PLoS Med. 2006 May;3(5):e142. Epub 2006 Apr 4. PMID: 16573362

      Pogge T. Montréal statement on the human right to essential medicines. Camb Q Healthc Ethics. 2007 Winter;16(1):97-108. PMID: 17345971 | [PDF 86.1 KB]

      Yamin AE. Not just a tragedy: access to medications as a right under international law. Boston Univ Int Law J. 2003 Fall;21(2):325-71. PMID: 16514750 | [PDF 163 KB]

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Data Sharing in Medical Research - March 2, 2008

In this episode, Sound Ethics: Who Owns Research Data?, Eric M. Meslin, Ph.D., director of the IU Center for Bioethics, and Andrew Vickers, Ph.D., a biostatistician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discuss Vickers’ New York Times essay questioning the reluctance of some researchers to share their raw data, even after the results have been published.