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Practice Therapeutics

Initial drug treatment in Parkinson’s disease

BMJ 2015; 351 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h4669 (Published 18 September 2015) Cite this as: BMJ 2015;351:h4669
Symptomatic treatment of Parkinson’s disease infographic
Click for an interactive graphic, showing more treatments for initial management of Parkinson’s disease.

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Re: Initial drug treatment in Parkinson’s disease

In the section on cost effectiveness, a statement is made by the authors regarding health economic studies for anti-Parkinsonian medicines, "However these studies were funded by drug companies and results may be biased". i wonder if I submitted a pair which said "However these studies were funded by anti-pharma ideologies and may be biased" whether the statement would escape editorial scrutiny. I rather doubt it.

I presume the authors meant to use the word "biased" in a lay, non-technical sense, meaning deliberately distorted to suit a purpose. If not, then I wonder if they are aware that almost all studies have some degree of random or systematic bias. Do they also consider that entities apart from pharmaceutical (or as they have it, drug) companies may produce material which is based? Some such people publish books to the retail market decrying the industry but escape any accusations of bias themselves. It is a real pity that the BMJ has a blind spot on what is, ironically, their bias.

Competing interests: Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine

03 October 2015
Martin Toal
Pharmaceutical Physician
Wokingham, UK