This series uses the story of Dan Markingson’s participation in a clinical trial of anti-psychotics at the University of Minnesota, his ultimate suicide while participating on the study, and subsequent events as a case study in which to explore various aspects of clinical trial conduct. In previous posts, we’ve looked at issues of “good clinical [...]

I’ve been doing a lot of traveling recently, and am increasingly disturbed by the growing surveillance society and the misplaced reassurances that are used to assuage the public, coined “security theater” by Bruce Schneier. Here we’ll look at this drama in the context of screening for drugs of abuse. In a later post we’ll look [...]

We’ve touched on some of the many disturbing things that happened during the clinical trial on which Dan Markingson committed suicide. In my first post, I asked how a psychotic, homicidal patient who was involuntarily hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital could give an informed consent for participation in a clinical trial. There appeared to have [...]

There are many disturbing things that happened during the clinical trial on which Dan Markingson committed suicide. Besides the issue of consent, or lack thereof, which I raised in my last post, one of the most disturbing aspects to me has been the lack of accountability and the apparent violations of clinical practice standards, with [...]

  The suicide of Dan Markingson, a 26 year old man participating in a psychiatric trial, has again made the news, and will serve us for a life-time of study and discussion of research ethics, along with the TeGenero and Jesse Gelsinger cases.   Markingson began to show signs of paranoia and delusions in 2003, [...]