Tom Sanders, professor emeritus of nutrition and dietetics at King's College London, said the study needed to be viewed "with some scepticism" because it was uncontrolled.
The two independent medical researchers said in interviews yesterday that Merck might have been premature in reaching the conclusion announced Thursday, in part because the patients in the study needed to be monitored for longer than one year.
The Heffter Research Institute is planning to support a phase III study needed to get FDA approval for using psilocybin to treat depression and anxiety in cancer patients, says Greer.
Patti Larchet, chief executive of Jenny Craig, said the free food received by participants in the JAMA study needed to be considered in context.
Clyde Yancy, a member of the association and part of the steering committee for the trial, said the study needed to be conducted because blacks had been under-represented in previous trials and there were questions about whether they should be given the existing drugs.
Dr. Stephen Bloom, an obesity researcher at Hammersmith Hospital in London, said the study needed to be repeated under more rigorous conditions, but added, "It is showing something I believe in deeply — it is very hard to lose weight".
Equally, the Taste study needed information on aroma aspects.
"This study needed to be done," says neurobiologist Lars Olson of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
But even students with motivation don't always have the time to engage in the kind of intensive study needed to enter the professions with the most opportunity for leverage.
Fourth, the study needed to present crime prevalence rates over a clearly defined period so that annual crime prevalence rates could be calculated.
Hence, future study needed to further improve the quality of this self-made questionnaire and to detect its reliability and validity.
