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i'll send you the studies. i share your skepticism regarding bias in studies funded by pharmaceutical companies, and mine extends to studies undertaken by researchers who are paid consultants to the company that makes the product they are testing, regardless of whether the study itself is funded by the company. however, the studies i am going to forward claim to have *found* an association between DAs and gambling, in which case if we were going to engage in skepticism, it would have to take the form of thinking that they may have been funded by *competitors* of DAs rather than makers of DAs. Only competitors of DAs would want to fudge/overstate study results to indicate the presence of an association. Wouldn't make sense, and it certainly is a dismal failure, if a DA company funded these studies hoping that someone would take a closer look at them and discredit them. anyway, the disclosures section of Stacy's study says it received no industry funding. Dodd actually did answer one of my questions, and that was that her study was funded internally at the Mayo Clinc. In the disclosures section of Szarfman's study, it says it was funded by the authors' institutions, which are the FDA, Duke University, and the third is a little murky - the third fellow used to be at the FDA but is now with a company called Lincoln Technologies - he basically took his focus on pharmacovigilance to the private sector. I *can* tell you that Dr. Stacy has received personal compensation for activities with: Mylan/Bertek Pharmaceuticals, Inc.,(generic sinemet and levodopa adjuncts - no DAs) Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc (Dupont/Merck's generic arm - makes levodopa adjuncts - Dupont/merck, naturally, makes sinemet) GE/Amercham (not sure), Kyowa (currently testing Istradefylline's efficacy as a levodopa adjunct), Novartis (markets stalevo, a levodopa product.) . Dr. Stacy has received research support for activities with: Merck & Co., Inc. (makes sinemet) Novartis (stalevo) GlaxoSmithKline, Inc.(requip) As of August 2003, Dr Stacy was on the speakers bureau of: GlaxoSmithKline Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation Pharmacia & Upjohn (pharmacia used to be Mirapex but they sold it to Boehringer Ingelheim); As of August 2003, Dr Stacy was on the advisory board for: Allergan, Inc (don't know) GlaxoSmithKline Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Just have to point out the frequency with which Novartis shows up in his disclosures: He has received personal compensation, research support, and was on the speakers bureau, and their advisory board at the time of the publication of his study. is it significant that 99% of the disclosures i have found for him are with companies that make or market a levodopa product or adjunct, and the one DA is one that is exonerated in his study? i don't know. Firstname Lastname <[log in to unmask]> wrote: OK. To be sure I have read all of them, please send me the list. But, I still don't give much credence to the studies I have read, for the reason I stated before. People who have suffered from the side effects of agonists are either too embarrassed or too proud to admit their compulsive behaviors. Also, who prepared the study? An agent for the Pharmaceutical Company? When I read the personal and sad stories told by so many - that tells me a great deal more than floored studies. I respectfully suggest you need to look beyond the "study tank," at the real stories people are telling, and show a little more compassion! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn --------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. Great rates starting at 1¢/min.