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PalMD
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Mark Hoofnagle
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- March 7, 2012
- 12:16 PM
- 348 views
Accountability in Science Journalism: two recent examples of failures in the NYT and Forbes
by PalMD in denialism blog
Ed Yong demands higher accountability in science journalism and has made me think of how in the last two days I've run across two examples of shoddy reporting. These two articles I think encompass a large part of the problem, the first from the NYT, represents the common failure of science reporters to be critical of correlative results. While lacking egregious factual errors, in accepting the authors' conclusions without vetting the results of the actual paper, the journalist has created a mi........ Read more »
McCormick, D., Bor, D., Woolhandler, S., & Himmelstein, D. (2012) Giving Office-Based Physicians Electronic Access To Patients' Prior Imaging And Lab Results Did Not Deter Ordering Of Tests. Health Affairs, 31(3), 488-496. DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2011.0876
- June 8, 2009
- 07:24 AM
- 1,031 views
The psychology of crankery
by PalMD in denialism blog
Our recent discussions of HIV/AIDS denial and in particular Seth Kalichman's book "Denying AIDS" has got me thinking more about the psychology of those who are susceptible to pseudoscientific belief. It's an interesting topic, and Kalichman studies it briefly in his book mentioning the "suspicious minds":
At its very core, denialism is deeply embedded in a sense of mistrust. Most obviously, we see suspicion in denialist conspiracy theories. Most conspiracy theories grow out of suspicions abo........ Read more »
Viren Swami, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Adrian Furnham. (2009) Unanswered questions: A preliminary investigation of personality and individual difference predictors of 9/11 conspiracist beliefs. Applied Cognitive Psychology. DOI: 10.1002/acp.1583
Rogers, P., Davis, T., & Fisk, J. (2009) Paranormal belief and susceptibility to the conjunction fallacy. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 23(4), 524-542. DOI: 10.1002/acp.1472
- May 22, 2009
- 08:00 AM
- 983 views
Are Patients in Universal Healthcare Countries Less Satisfied?
by PalMD in denialism blog
A dishonest campaign has started against healthcare reform in this country and the first shot has come from Conservatives for Patients Rights (CPR), a group purporting to show that patients in universal health systems suffer from government interference in health care. To bolster their argument, they have a pile of anecdotes from people around the world who have suffered at the hands of evil government-run systems. The problem, of course, is that anecdotes are not data, it is impossible to det........ Read more »
Schoen, C., Osborn, R., Doty, M., Bishop, M., Peugh, J., & Murukutla, N. (2007) Toward Higher-Performance Health Systems: Adults' Health Care Experiences In Seven Countries, 2007. Health Affairs, 26(6). DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.26.6.w717
Nolte, E., & McKee, C. (2008) Measuring The Health Of Nations: Updating An Earlier Analysis. Health Affairs, 27(1), 58-71. DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.27.1.58
- May 18, 2009
- 08:05 AM
- 1,357 views
Denialism in the Literature
by PalMD in denialism blog
It's good news though! A description of the tactics and appropriate response to denialism was published in the European Journal of Public Health by authors Pascal Diethelm and Martin McKee. It's entitled "Denialism: what is it and how should scientists respond?" and I think it does an excellent job explaining the harms of deniailsm, critical elements of denialism, as well as providing interesting historical examples of corporate denialism on the part of tobacco companies.
HIV does not cause A........ Read more »
Diethelm, P., & McKee, M. (2008) Denialism: what is it and how should scientists respond?. The European Journal of Public Health, 19(1), 2-4. DOI: 10.1093/eurpub/ckn139
- May 12, 2009
- 10:53 AM
- 1,093 views
Obesity - A new study and what it means to be a "healthy weight"
by PalMD in denialism blog
In response to the conversation on "Obesity, Evolution and Delayed Gratification" on the main page and Razib's coverage of a fascinating new study on the relationship to the lactase gene and obesity, I thought now would be a good time to write about an important new study that helps define the boundaries of what normal and healthy weights are in humans.
This study, entitled Body-mass index and cause-specific mortality in 900 000 adults: collaborative analyses of 57 prospective studies is a who........ Read more »
Prospective Studies Collaboration, . (2009) Body-mass index and cause-specific mortality in 900 000 adults: collaborative analyses of 57 prospective studies. The Lancet, 373(9669), 1083-1096. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60318-4
- February 6, 2009
- 11:06 AM
- 1,678 views
The editors of PLoS should read PLoS
by PalMD in denialism blog
What do this cartoon and the latest edition of PLoS One have in common? Well, reading Bora's blog this week I saw an article entitled, Risks for Central Nervous System Diseases among Mobile Phone Subscribers: A Danish Retrospective Cohort Study and my ears perked up. We have been mocking the idea that cell phones cause everything from brain cancer to colony collapse disorder and it's always fun to see what cell phones are being blamed for based on weak associations and correlations.
In this a........ Read more »
Joachim Schüz, Gunhild Waldemar, Jørgen H. Olsen, & Christoffer Johansen. (2009) Risks for Central Nervous System Diseases among Mobile Phone Subscribers: A Danish Retrospective Cohort Study. PLoS ONE, 4(2). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0004389
- December 4, 2008
- 05:50 PM
- 1,545 views
tobacco and mental illness
by PalMD in denialism blog
Anyone who works with the mentally ill knows that they smoke more than other people. In fact, people with mental illness (hereafter, MI, not to be confused with myocardial infarction) are about twice as likely to smoke as people without mental illness, with smoking rates of 60-90%. One of my favorite stats is that "44% of the cigarettes smoked in the United States are by individuals with a psychiatric or substance-abuse disorder." People with MI are also heavier smokers, and may even be bette........ Read more »
Karen Lasser, MD; J. Wesley Boyd, MD, PhD; Steffie Woolhandler, MD, MPH; David U. Himmelstein, MD; Danny McCormick, MD, MPH; David H. Bor, MD. (2000) Smoking and Mental Illness: A Population-Based Prevalence Study . The Journal of the American Medical Association, 284(20), 2606-2610. DOI: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/284/20/2606
Nady el-Guebaly, M.D., Janice Cathcart, B.S.N., M.Ed., Shawn Currie, Ph.D., Diane Brown, R.N. and Susan Gloster, R.N., B.N. (2002) Smoking Cessation Approaches for Persons With Mental Illness or Addictive Disorders . Psychiatric Services, 53(9), 1166-1170. DOI: 12221317
J WILLIAMS. (2004) Addressing tobacco among individuals with a mental illness or an addiction. Addictive Behaviors, 29(6), 1067-1083. DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2004.03.009
- December 1, 2008
- 01:32 PM
- 1,575 views
Where do you get your mercury?
by PalMD in denialism blog
There is an ongoing discussion amongst our Sciblings regarding our German counterparts at scienceblogs.de. Apparently they have some odd folks as science bloggers over there, including people who think ayurvedic heavy metals are good for you. In the tradition of countering speech with speech, I'm giving you this repost. More to come, I'm sure. --PalMD
The Infectious Disease Promotion Movement (let by such intellectual luminaries as Jenny McCarthy) may be worried about "toxins" in vaccines, ........ Read more »
Robert Saper, & et al. (2008) Lead, Mercury, and Arsenic in US- and Indian-Manufactured Ayurvedic Medicines Sold via the Internet. Journal of the American Medical Association, 300(8), 915-923. http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/300/8/915
- November 21, 2008
- 02:10 PM
- 1,657 views
Ginkgo does not prevent dementia, or "I can't remember what NCCAM is good for"
by PalMD in denialism blog
Here's a question for you: is there, or should there be, any difference between studies of "alternative" and non-alternative medicine? I've argued before that there is no such thing as alternative medicine. So why do we need a separate agency to study "alternative" medicine? The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine seems to be just such an agency. For example, the latest study of Gingko biloba for the prevention of dementia could have been funded by other agencies, suc........ Read more »
Steven T. DeKosky, MD; Jeff D. Williamson, MD, MHS; Annette L. Fitzpatrick, PhD; Richard A. Kronmal, PhD; Diane G. Ives, MPH; Judith A. Saxton, MD; Oscar L. Lopez, MD; Gregory Burke, MD; Michelle C. Carlson, PhD; Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH; Lewis H. Kuller, . (2008) Ginkgo biloba for Prevention of Dementia. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 300(19), 2253-2262. DOI: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/300/19/2253
- November 14, 2008
- 01:48 PM
- 1,079 views
Abdominal adiposity and risk of death, or "belly fat'll kill ya'"
by PalMD in denialism blog
Last week's New England Journal of Medicine gave us some remarkable news, via the JUPITER Trial, adding additional evidence to the pile of articles on the cardioprotective effects of statins. This article is getting lots of press, which is great, but I'd hate to see this week's edition of the Journal get lost. Specifically, there's a huge population-based study on obesity and mortality. We've explored previously the dangers of obesity, and we've been fought the whole way by various denialists........ Read more »
Pischon, T., Boeing, H., Hoffmann, K., Bergmann, M., Schulze, M.B., Overvad, K., van der Schouw, Y.T., Spencer, E., Moons, K.G.M., Tjonneland, A., Halkjaer, J., Jensen, M.K., Stegger, J., Clavel-Chapelon, F., Boutron-Ruault, M.-C., Chajes, V., Linseisen, . (2008) General and Abdominal Adiposity and Risk of Death in Europe. New England Journal of Medicine, 359(20), 2105-2120. DOI: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/359/20/2105
D HASLAM, & W JAMES. (2005) Obesity. The Lancet, 366(9492), 1197-1209. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(05)67483-1
Kenneth F. Adams, Ph.D., Arthur Schatzkin, M.D., Tamara B. Harris, M.D., Victor Kipnis, Ph.D.,, & Traci Mouw, M.P.H., Rachel Ballard-Barbash, M.D., Albert Hollenbeck, Ph.D., and Michael F. Leitzmann, M.D. (2006) Overweight, Obesity, and Mortality in a Large Prospective Cohort of Persons 50 to 71 Years Old. New England Journal of Medicine, 355(8), 763-778. DOI: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/reprint/355/8/763.pdf
- November 7, 2008
- 07:18 AM
- 1,225 views
Migraines prevent breast cancer!!!!!!!
by PalMD in denialism blog
When reporting on science, reporters and editors like sexy stories. Since most science isn't particularly sexy, there's usually a hook. If you can squeeze "risk" and "cancer" into a headline, an editor sees good headline. What I usually see is a sensationalist article that is going to get it very wrong.
One of the questions most often asked in the medical literature is "what is the risk of x?" It's a pretty important question. I'd like to be able to tell my patient with high blood pressure ........ Read more »
R. W. Mathes, K. E. Malone, J. R. Daling, S. Davis, S. M. Lucas, P. L. Porter, & C. I. Li. (2008) Migraine in Postmenopausal Women and the Risk of Invasive Breast Cancer. Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers , 17(11), 3116-3122. DOI: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-08-0527
- October 27, 2008
- 05:10 PM
- 1,314 views
Do physicians really believe in placebos?
by PalMD in denialism blog
This article is cross-posted at Science-Based Medicine. Check it out. --PalMD
In a previous post, I argued that placebo is an artifact of certain clinical interactions, rather than a treatment that we can exploit. Apparently, there are a whole lot of doctors out there who don't agree with me. Or are there?
A recent study published in the British Medical Journal is getting
a lot of enk (e-ink) in the blogosphere. As a practicing internist, I have some pretty strong opinions (based in fact,........ Read more »
J. C Tilburt, E. J Emanuel, T. J Kaptchuk, F. A Curlin, & F. G Miller. (2008) Prescribing "placebo treatments": results of national survey of US internists and rheumatologists. BMJ, 337(oct23 2). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.a1938
T. J Kaptchuk, J. M Kelley, L. A Conboy, R. B Davis, C. E Kerr, E. E Jacobson, I. Kirsch, R. N Schyner, B. H. Nam, L. T Nguyen.... (2008) Components of placebo effect: randomised controlled trial in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. BMJ, 336(7651), 999-1003. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.39524.439618.25
A Hróbjartsson. (2002) What are the main methodological problems in the estimation of placebo effects?. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 55(5), 430-435. DOI: 10.1016/S0895-4356(01)00496-6
- October 6, 2008
- 10:43 AM
- 832 views
Worst. Paper. Ever.
by PalMD in denialism blog
Yesterday, we looked at how real science works; today, in a repost from my old blog, we look at some really bad science. --PalMD
I've been meaning to touch on "Morgellons disease" (a form of delusional parasitosis) for a while, but haven't figured out how to approach it. Thankfully, others have. In the first referenced discussion, a paper was cited. This paper was such a great example of how not to approach medical science that I just had to address it in detail, section by section...
Backg........ Read more »
Virginia Savely, & Mary Leitao. (2006) The Mystery of Morgellons Disease: Infection or Delusion?. American Journal of Clinical Dermatology, 7(1), 1-5. http://www.morgellons.com/AJCDerm1.pdf
- October 4, 2008
- 06:04 PM
- 1,864 views
Exciting news on the HIV front
by PalMD in denialism blog
In my earlier post about HIV therapy (a post I strongly recommend), I wrote, "After entering a cell (never mind how for now), HIV needs to find a way to makes copies of itself, which requires DNA." Because of some recently released data, it's time to look at how HIV enters the cell, and to expand a bit on the biology of HIV infection (but this is really a "Part II" so please refer to the above-linked post, even though this should stand on its own). This will also allow us another glimpse into ........ Read more »
Roy M. Gulick, M.D., Jacob Lalezari, M.D., James Goodrich, M.D., Ph.D., Nathan Clumeck, M.D., Ph.D.,, Edwin DeJesus, M.D., Andrzej Horban, M.D., Ph.D., Jeffrey Nadler, M.D., Bonaventura Clotet, M.D., Ph.D.,, Anders Karlsson, Ph.D., Michael Wohlfeiler, M.D., John B. Montana, M.D., Mary McHale, M.B., B.S., M.R.C., John Sullivan, B.Sc., Caroline Ridgway, M.Sc., Steve Felstead, M.B., Ch.B., Michael W. Dunne, M.D.,, & Elna van der Ryst, M.B., Ch.B., Ph.D., and Howard Mayer, M.D., for the MOTIVATE Study Teams*. (2008) Maraviroc for Previously Treated Patients with R5 HIV-1 Infection. New England Journal of Medicine, 359(14), 1429-1441. DOI: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/359/14/1429
Gerd Fätkenheuer, M.D., Mark Nelson, F.R.C.P., Adriano Lazzarin, M.D., Irina Konourina, M.D., Andy I.M. Hoepelman, M.D., Ph.D., Harry Lampiris, M.D., Bernard Hirschel, M.D., Pablo Tebas, M.D., François Raffi, M.D., Ph.D., Benoit Trottier, M.D., Nicholao. (2008) Subgroup Analyses of Maraviroc in Previously Treated R5 HIV-1 Infection. New England Journal of Medicine, 359(14), 1442-1455. DOI: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/359/14/1442
- August 27, 2008
- 07:32 PM
- 1,842 views
Where do you get your mercury?
by PalMD in denialism blog
The Infectious Disease Promotion Movement (let by such intellectual luminaries as Jenny McCarthy) may be worried about "toxins" in vaccines, but the real problem may hiding in plain sight.
Today's issue of JAMA has an interesting study of Ayurvedic (traditional Indian) medicines. It turns out that many of them contain a significant amount of toxic heavy metals. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...... Read more »
Robert Saper, & et al. (2008) Lead, Mercury, and Arsenic in US- and Indian-Manufactured Ayurvedic Medicines Sold via the Internet. Journal of the American Medical Association, 300(8), 915-923. http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/300/8/915
- August 20, 2008
- 10:15 AM
- 1,361 views
Seeding trials---no relation to Seed Media Group, LLC
by PalMD in denialism blog
I've been having an internal debate about whether to write on this issue, not because it isn't interesting, not because it isn't important, but because it's getting so much coverage and I'm not sure how much I can add to the conversation.
But it so infuriated me that I must blog. Science-based medicine relies on medical evidence. It relies on being able to grade medical evidence by its quality and strength, and to do this, there must be a certain level of transparency.
I'm only a little bi........ Read more »
Kevin P. Hill, MD, MHS; Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS; David S. Egilman, MD, MPH; and Harlan M. Krumholz, MD, SM. (2008) The ADVANTAGE Seeding Trial: A Review of Internal Documents. Annals of Internal Medicine, 149(4), 251-258.
- July 30, 2008
- 10:01 PM
- 845 views
How real science works
by PalMD in denialism blog
Every once in a while I like to do a piece on how real science works. The New England Journal of Medicine was kind enough to serve up a nice example for us this week.
Real science is hard. It's time-consuming, expensive, and leads down many blind alleys. That's one of the reasons pseudoscience is so alluring---anyone can do it. It doesn't require an education, an R01 grant, or really even a grasp of reality.
So on to the current article. Heart disease is a big killer. Ove........ Read more »
Cristophe Piot, & et al. (2008) Effect of Cyclosporine on Reperfusion Injury in Acute Myocardial Infarction. New England Journal of Medicine, 359(5), 473-481. http://nejm.org
- July 29, 2008
- 02:02 PM
- 1,813 views
I get questions...
by PalMD in denialism blog
I frequently get questions by email or by comment. If it's simple, I might fire off an answer. If it's about a personal medical problem, I either don't answer, or send a standard disclaimer to seek medical care. If it's a really interesting question, I blog. Today, I blog.
The question regarded the ubiquitous commercials for erectile dysfunction treatments (see this excellent post for an overview of the topic of ED drugs). As anyone who has a TV knows, the commercials a........ Read more »
James Taylor, Vikki G Nolan, Laurel Mendelsohn, Gregory J Kato, Mark T Gladwin, Martin H Steinberg, & Pieter H Reitsma. (2008) Chronic Hyper-Hemolysis in Sickle Cell Anemia: Association of Vascular Complications and Mortality with Less Frequent Vasoocclusive Pain. PLoS ONE, 3(5). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0002095
V Nolan. (2005) Hemolysis-associated priapism in sickle cell disease. Blood, 106(9), 3264-3267. DOI: 10.1182/blood-2005-04-1594
Arthur Burnett. (2006) Long-term oral phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitor therapy alleviates recurrent priapism . Urology, 67(5), 1043-1048.
- April 23, 2008
- 08:02 PM
- 1,628 views
Domestic violence is bad for your health
by PalMD in denialism blog
A new study this month in The Lancet examined the health impact of domestic violence (of women by men). This was a very large WHO-funded study looking at multiple physical and mental health problems in abused vs. non-abused women. This is necessarily an observational study, but appears to be well done, and included a large and diverse sample of women.
A few findings are worth a specific mention.
First, intimate partner violence is very common across cultures, with numbers ranging from 15-71%........ Read more »
Mary Ellsberg, Henrica Jansen, & et al. (2008) Intimate partner violence and women\'s physical and mental health in the WHO multi-country study on women\'s health and domestic violence: an observational study. The Lancet, 371(9619), 1165-1172.
- April 2, 2008
- 07:02 PM
- 1,181 views
The message and the messenger
by PalMD in denialism blog
I'm not sure what to make of this. An article in the latest Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reports some potentially good news for type II diabetics. Type II diabetes has been extensively studied (detailed post to follow), and one area of difficulty has been reducing the incidence of macrovascular disease (heart attack and stroke, primarily). Treating blood pressure and cholesterol aggressively in diabetics helps, but controlling blood sugars closely doesn't seem ........ Read more »
S Nissen, S J Nicholls, K Wolski, R Nesto, S Kupfer, A Perez, H Jure, R De Larochelliere, C S Staniloae, K Mavromatis.... (2008) Comparison of Pioglitazone vs Glimepiride on Progression of Coronary Atherosclerosis in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: The PERISCOPE Randomized Controlled Trial. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 299(13), 1561-1573. DOI: 10.1001/jama.299.13.1561
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