BMJ  2005;330:600-601 (12 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7491.600-b

Letter

Taking folate in pregnancy and risk of maternal breast cancer

Authors' reply

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—We believe that we have behaved ethically. We emphasised the preliminary nature of our findings and submitted our paper as a research pointer. We worked with the press offices of our universities, the BMJ, and the Department of Health to promote responsible media coverage. The journalist working for the tabloid referred to by Stirrat did not speak to us.

Although we agree that media reporting of scientific articles might be improved, we do not think that suppression of research findings is justified. Greenland et al have argued empirical observations should be reported so that they can be used to develop and test theoretical understandings of disease aetiology.¹ It might be more appropriate to ask whether it is ethical not to conduct long term follow up of large randomised trials that produced immediate effects.

Participants in this trial were sequentially allocated to receive pills of different colours. Neither . . . [Full text of this article]

Dugald Baird Centre For Research on Women's Health, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Aberdeen Maternity Hospital, Aberdeen AB25 2ZL

Unit of Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, Division of Child Health, Bristol BS8 1TQ Andy.Ness@bristol.ac.uk

Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol B58 2PR

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Coloured Pills

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bmj.com, 11 Mar 2005 [Full text]

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