"When does research into a preventive treatment become
unethical? In many areas of medicine this is a familiar
question; the ethics around immunizations is solidly grounded in
such thought. However, in psychiatry, wholly preventive
psychopharmacologic treatments have been unusual.Unfortunately,
such research is fraught with ethical dangers. In a recent study
by McGlashan et al., “Randomized, Double-Blind Trial of
Olanzapine Versus Placebo in Patients Prodromally Symptomatic
for Psychosis,” it seems psychiatry may have crossed into
ethically questionable territory..." "In McGlashan's study, the
14 authors cooperated under a Merck and NIMH grant and conducted
their research in four clinical sites in the United States and
Canada. The study examined whether olanzapine (Zyprexa) could be
used in patients that appeared to be “prodromal” for
schizophrenia to prevent or delay the onset of the disease. Just
as some people feel tired or irritable a day or two before
getting a cold, the psychosis that is the hallmark of