MASKED INTENTIONS WITH FENFLURAMINE

After being told that her son, Issac, would not face any long-term side effects, Charisse Johnson let her son participate in an experiment, hoping that it would help her incarcerated son.  Unfortunately, for many mothers, including Ms. Johnson, that was not the case.

     These children of color were now at risk of facing heart valve damage and hypertension, on top of behavioral issues such as aggression following the study. They were participants in the fenfluramine test challenge, where researchers sought to observe if there was a connection between serotonin, a chemical that controls mood and behavior, aggressive behavior, and an unhealthy environment during childhood. The children were injected with a dose of fenfluramine, due to its influence on serotonin, as it might reveal that a genetic component existed in violent behavior. It was concluded that serotonin does have an influence on aggressive behavior.

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     Despite the majority population in New York being White, this entire study used only minorities, mainly Black children, with a goal to prove that there is a genetic component to violent behavior. There are long standing stereotypes of African-American males being violent, that has led to mass incarceration of Black people and policies that further exacerbate the issue. On top of being darker, all the participants also lived in unhealthy environments. Nonetheless, these factors made it easy for the children and their mothers to give consent to the study. To illustrate,  since one of the criteria for being selected was having an incarcerated sibling(s), subtle persuasion is present since mothers were hoping they could help their jailed sons due to their younger sibling’s participation in the study.

     Additionally, impoverished minority families may be open to requests from government authorities differently than those who are in better situations. Now, there were not only social consequences from the study, there were also adverse health effects. One boy, Issac, took a single dose of 60 milligrams while kept in a bed for over five hours and having blood drawn each hour like all the other children did. Fenfluramine had been proven to cause heart valve damage and death, and even brain damage when given in small doses, which the researchers were knowledgeable about.

            Following the protest of concerned mothers and patient advocacy groups, the Office for Protection from Research Risks (OHRP), a connection of the National Institute of Health (NIH), investigated the Mount Sinai Medical Center and the New York Psychiatric Institute, and found fault. OHRP concluded that the two medical research facilities did not adhere to federal guidelines; however, no punishments were met.

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Sources:

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Hemsey, Yvonne. “Bottles of Phentermine and Fenfluramine, commonly known as Phen-Fen.” (September 5, 2017). Accessed April, 4, 2020 https://www.history.com/.image/c_limit,cs_srgb,q_auto:good,w_686/MTU3ODc4NjgwMDE4Mjk4MTg1/image-placeholder-title.webp.

Guart, Al. “’Mom: I was Duped When Son Became ‘Drug Guinea Pig.’”New York Post (New York, NY), (May 4, 1999). Accessed March 29, 2020. https://nypost.com/1999/05/30/mom-i-was-duped-when-son-became-drug-guinea-pig/.

Kodish, Eric.Ethics and Research with Children a Case-Based Approach .Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Pine, Daniel S., J. D. Coplan, G. A. Wasserman, L. S. Miller, J. E. Fried, M. Davies, T. B. Cooper, L. Greenhill, D. Shaffer, and B. Parsons. “Neuroendocrine Response to Fenfluramine Challenge in Boys. Association with Aggressive Behavior and Adverse Rearing.” Archives of General Psychiatry 54, no. 9 (1997): 839–46. Accessed March 28, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.1997.01830210083010

Queensborough Community College. “Chapter  7: Human Experimentation Case:  fenfluramine.” (n.d.). Accessed April 13, 2020. https://www.qcc.cuny.edu/socialsciences/ppecorino/Medical_Ethics_Text/Chapter_7_Human_Experimentation/Case_Study_fenfluramine.htm