Paula,

You bring up a very important subject that highlights what continues to be wrong with our research model. I wonder how it is we can tout having the best scientists, doctors, hospitals...health care, blah, blah, when our model for researching disease therapies and cures lags a century behind.

I recall talking to Linda H about clinical trials and research in other countries. Apparently, if I recall our conversation correctly, other countries in Europe and around the globe ban sham surgeries because they are unethical; they have an alternate model for statistical analysis. Here's the rub: the FDA and powers that be here refuse to accept their alternative stats because...they are NOTbased on sham surgeries and thus statistically suspect?!?!!! This is why treatments like Duodopa have been used in continental Europe for 4-5 years and is not available here. Linda, if I'm wrong on this, please set us straight.

No matter what oceans, cultures, languages, separate us, don't we all share a common bond through our compromised neurotransmitters? Why shouldn't a drug that passes muster in Japan be approved here more readily? I understand the need for standards, but why don't we have an international standard for research- our disorder, disease, syndrome doesn't have a national boundary. The irony is, after all this focus on standards, ethics, and statistics, we are in the end our own witch doctors and shamans. While the important people who have the power to change our world hum, lurch, and chug along with the status quo, we're forced to cut capsules, mix powders and solutions, grow beans; basically, cure or treat ourselves because to sit idly by while nothing happens is like giving up.

My 2 cents.

Laura