DISCOVERIES WHICH HAVE NOT BEEN FOLLOWED UP AND EXPERIMENTS THAT COULD NOT BE REPLICATED

George Gardos

To contribute to the foundation for education in the history of neuropsychopharmacology, it was suggested to generate two lists, one in which “discoveries in neuropsychopharmacology which have not been followed up” and another in which “experiments which could not be replicated “are presented in chronology (Ban 2015). To provide an example for a discovery that have not been followed up, Ban referred to observations  by David Janowsky and his associates that physostigmine, a cholinesterase inhibitor that increases acetylcholine concentrations, turned off mania and induced depression in some patients; and to provide an example for an experiment that could not be replicated, he referred to the findings of Wyatt and his associates, that low monoamine oxidase activity in platelets was a genetic marker for schizophrenia (Ban 2015).

The suggestion was adopted by INHN and this posting signals the launch of our project that aims to develop chronological lists, one for discoveries that have not been followed up, and another for experiments that could not be replicated. The project will be conducted in four consecutive steps. In the first, each member of the Network will be invited individually to prepare a list of “discoveries” encountered in their own research, or learned about from publications which they thought should have been followed up but were not; in the second, each member will be invited to prepare a list of  findings encountered in their own research or learned about in publications which could not be replicated; in the third, the two chronological lists will be  prepared and each entry on the list discussed; and in the fourth, some of the entries     from both lists will be reviewed in detail.

Reference:

Ban TA. Towards Education in the History of Neuropsychopharmacology. Part 4. Discoveries that havenotbeen followe up and experiments that couldnot be replicated. INHN. org. Home. 07.23.2015. 

George Gardos
August 20, 2015