Media Right to Report Small Value of Antidepressants
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CORRESPONDENCE NATURE|Vol 452|24 April 2008 Media right to report small at all — only a few beneficiaries have been A fact your report didn’t mention is that convinced to pay for environmental services. the new biomedical laboratory in Oxford value of antidepressants This illustrates the essentially theoretical — which, by the way, will house mostly SIR — Your Editorial ‘No more scavenger character (at least, up till now) of economic rodents and very few monkeys — has been hunts’ (Nature 452, 1; 2008) indicates that the values generated by ecosystem services. built. In a campaign that complemented the press reaction to a recent meta-analysis of ‘Payments for ecosystem services’ are efforts of the police and government, Pro- antidepressant efficacy was exaggerated — supposed to save tropical forests. But even Test were able to counter the animal-rights and that it was “not the media’s finest hour”. if it were possible to mobilize substantial group Speak (‘The voice for the animals’) by But I do not find their reaction surprising. payments, tropical farmers wouldn’t be capitalizing on the overwhelming support for To one who has followed the scientific prepared to stand by and twiddle their the new laboratory among Oxford students literature over the years, the fact that thumbs while receiving them. They need and local politicians. antidepressants’ superiority over placebo is at a field of activity, so sustainable land- Extremism can be defeated, but only if best modest may come as no surprise: in fact, use concepts should address the social scientists stand up and expose the myths and this is apparent in most published clinical environment and needs of people as well. distortions that fuel it. trials. But the portrayal of antidepressants as These concepts could be linked and possibly Name and address supplied advertised by pharmaceutical companies, financed by such payments. ratified by medical professionals, propagated If the people who use tropical lands are by mass media and absorbed by the general disregarded, we don’t believe that payments public during the past two decades has been for ecosystem services will solve the problem Truth about a plant with very different. They are promoted as highly of disappearing tropical forests. What is many names efficacious drugs (not true, when considering needed is an economic system that keeps effect magnitude) that correct the ‘chemical people gainfully employed in an activity that SIR — In the portrayal in Books & Arts of imbalances’ underlying depression (not is ultimately productive, not destructive. the University History Museum in Pavia, true, when considering how little we know Thomas Knoke*, Bernd Stimm†, Michael Weber† northern Italy (Nature 451, 526, 2008), the about its pathophysiology) and improve *Institute of Forest Management, naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli — one depressive symptoms better and faster than Technische Universität München of Pavia’s many famous professors — is linked psychotherapy (not true, when considering †Institute of Silviculture, with the drug scopolamine. But although most clinical trials that compare the two). Technische Universität München, the two are connected, the compound was This publicity prompted an even more Am Hochanger 13, 85354 Freising, Germany in fact named after the plant from which it is misguided rejection of antidepressant derived, Scopolia carniolica. therapy by some of its opponents, with Indeed, Scopoli (1723–1788) was also a claims that the drugs would ‘dope’ people physician. He worked for a time at the huge into happiness and prevent them from Researchers should explain 500-year-old mercury mine in Idrija in working out their problems. why they use animals Carniola, now part of Slovenia, and recorded Publicizing the modest effects of the adverse effects of mercury in miners. In antidepressants goes some way towards SIR — Your News story ‘Animal-rights this mountainous region, he studied the local countering the much more exaggerated activists invade Europe (Nature 451, 1034– plants and published his findings in the positive hype that preceded it. Although it 1035; 2008) highlights the need for medical famous Flora Carniolica in 1760 and 1772, might not have been the media’s finest hour, researchers to do more to communicate and corresponded in Latin with the Swedish on this subject it was still finer than most. to the public the reasons why they need to naturalist Carl Linnaeus. Olavo B. Amaral use animals in their research and what this The scopolamine-containing plant was Departamento de Bioquímica, ICBS, Universidade involves. All too often, there is a tendency first described in 1569 by Pietro Andrea Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, R. Ramiro Barcelos to wait until extremism becomes intolerable Mattioli and was identified by Scopoli in 2600 (anexo), 90035-003 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil before taking steps to counter it (see Nature the forests around Idrija as Lithophila. The 452, 282; 2008). The little information about Vienna court botanist Nikolaus Joseph von animal research available to the public is Jacquin in 1764 changed the name to Scopola frequently oversimplified and tends to be carniolica, in honour of the great naturalist. Tropical farmers need over-reliant on the perceived authority of However, Scopoli avoided using the name, productive alternatives the author. The scientific literature usually as ‘scopola’ is an insult in Venetian dialect, requires subscription to access it and indicating a slap in the face. Linnaeus SIR — Your Editorial ‘Markets can save scientific training to understand it. This changed the name to Hyoscyamus scopolia forests’ (Nature 452, 127–128; 2008) leaves information gaps through which in 1767, and in 1790 the genus name proposes integrating deforestation into the antivivisectionist groups can push their Scopolia was adopted. international carbon market, but it is unlikely propaganda. About 100 years later, Ernst A. Schmidt that money alone can solve the problem. Organizations such as the Research at the University of Marburg isolated The process of tropical deforestation Defence Society (www.rds-online.org.uk) do an alkaloid constituent from Scopolia presents a dilemma: enormous economic much to address this deficit, but have limited carniolica’s dried rhizome, naming the value (more than US$2,000 a year per resources and cannot be expected to counter drug scopolamine. This sedative has also hectare) is lost in favour of small private the animal-rights campaigners alone. Anyone been used by ophthalmologists and as a benefits (often less than US$100 a year per who is wondering why somebody doesn’t ‘truth serum’ during the Cold War. hectare). In a true market, an increased, debunk misleading claims made about Marko Kreft, Robert Zorec scarcity-signalling price should provide an them or their colleagues should consider Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology-Molecular incentive to boost the supply of the scarce the possibility that they are that ‘somebody’. Cell Physiology, Institute of Pathophysiology, commodity. So far, this has not worked in Even those who are not prepared to go public Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, the case of tropical forests. Real financial can always provide detailed explanations of Zaloška 4, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, and flows received for the provision of ecosystem their work and that of others in the field to Celica Biomedical Center, Tehnološki Park 24, services are vanishingly small, if they exist scientific advocacy campaigns. 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia 934.