Science isn’t broken
Weekly nuggets of pain science news and insight, usually 100-300 words, with the occasional longer post. The blog is the “director’s commentary” on the core content of PainScience.com: a library of major articles and books about common painful problems and popular treatments. See the blog archives or updates for the whole site.
These comments are inspired by the conflict-of-interest allegations about Albert et al and their study of antibiotic therapy for low back pain (3 of 4 authors on the board of a company selling antibiotic therapy). So far, I think the best summary of the debacle is now Dr. Margaret McCartney’s article in the British Medical Journal, and see also Dr. Lorimer Moseley’s eloquent, gracious comment:
I wonder how far any of us are from this kind of mistake — a lazy media release, and eager PR manager, an impending promotion. I reflect on the anguish I imagine the authors are feeling right now and the damage this has done to their reputations and I can hear the whispering in my own heart — ‘Careful! That could have been you.’
And there’s also my own summary in my back pain e-book, now fully updated on this topic — yay for nimble digital publishing!