Testvets: Use of wounded US troops in drug trial questioned

Testvets {Mike (Beetle) Bailey's Blog}! A never ending, and usually unknown by those soldiers being tested, fact of the Military as they have extremely easy to use subjects where results can be turned over to the private sector for profit {especially in these times of private contractors and what's already surfaced as to}, in the many cases over the years this has taken place on many issues, some still unknown and even denied happened.

Pentagon questions drug study on troops

Misconduct is alleged in tests using wounded

August 3, 2010 The Department of Defense is investigating whether 80 wounded American service members in Iraq were improperly used as subjects in a test of a possible treatment for brain injuries, according to the Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General.

The study, sponsored by the United States Naval Medical Center in San Diego, was designed to test whether a drug made to treat Tylenol overdoses, among other uses, could also reduce the harmful effects of traumatic brain injury, such as balance loss and brain function problems, in service members who had been hit by explosions.

The investigation, triggered by an allegation made last year to a Department of Defense hotline, is reviewing the study for possible research misconduct on human subjects. The Pentagon has not said whether anyone was hurt as a result of the administration of the drug.

Snip

Medical tests on human subjects must follow strict rules in their design and execution to protect the safety of patients, said Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. Test subjects must be competent and able to understand the test and its implications, participation must be voluntary without any pressure, and all test subjects must be fully informed of the potential risks before they consent to take part, he said.

The Pentagon investigation has delayed the normal rounds of medical peer review required for any study that suggests a potential new treatment, said Commander Cappy Surette, a Navy Medicine spokesman. Continued

While this can help, and often do, in greater understanding and possible help for patients, even outside of the military, there's a right way and the military way of doing things {in modern times probably a drug company way as well}. Hopefully the study will find that the military was on the right side with full knowledge, depending on the military personal tested, of them and or their families. Not only what might be expected but we all known the long list of side affects that are attached, and known or suspected about, of almost every drug on the market.

These are already patients with a damaged brain from the trauma they've gone through, not lab rabbits or mice!