60 minutes ran a piece last Sunday about a new drug treatment for certain addictions. Three drugs have been combined and called, Prometa, and are being touted for their efficacy with alcoholism, cocaine and meth.
Always be suspicious of folks hawking treatments that just can’t wait until the research is done because their treatment is so fantastic and a miracle cure–especially if the guy doing the hawking is a former junk bond salesman. Wikipedia includes a quote from the show I saw Sunday night:
Prometa is “being promoted by Terren Peizer, a former junk bond salesman whose business is business, not medicine. He skipped the usual medical research and government approvals to rush Prometa to market. Why the shortcuts? Peizer, who stands to make millions, says there’s no way he can sit on Prometa when he believes it’s the miracle treatment that millions are dying for.”
Check out this newspaper article for a more balanced view: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/200936.html
Also Wikipedia reminds us what a controlled trial consists of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometa
There may well be something valuable for meth addicts here. But, lets do the research first before hawking to those most vulnerable to false hopes.
Musings on Faith and Psychology 