We Need to Talk About the Fenfluramine Study

"In the mid-1990s, child mental health researchers at top New York institutions injected grade-school boys with fenfluramine, also known as the diet drug "fen-fen," a substance that was later banned by the Food and Drug Administration, due to its links to valvular heart disease and pulmonary hypertension. The boys were all Black or Hispanic by design: Eligible participants were required to be African American or Hispanic because they were deemed to be at higher risk for developing disruptive behaviors."

"They fasted for 18 hours and had a catheter in their arm for six hours while being injected with a drug later pulled from the market. The families received less than $200 for the procedures, and their risk was minimized in the informed consent paperwork."

"I felt ashamed that as a prescriber of psychotropic medication for children, I had not been required to learn about it, much less take responsibility for it. I learned about it the way I've learned most of what I know about psychiatry's racist history—on my own, through resources well outside of my profession."

In the mid-1990s, researchers at prominent New York institutions conducted an unethical study injecting fenfluramine—a diet drug later banned for causing heart and lung damage—into Black and Hispanic grade-school boys. Participants were deliberately selected based on race, deemed at higher risk for disruptive behaviors. Children fasted for 18 hours with catheters inserted for six hours while receiving the harmful substance. The study investigated correlations between serotonin levels and aggression risk factors including adverse home environments and family violence. Families received minimal compensation under $200, with risks downplayed in consent documents. This historical injustice remained absent from the author's comprehensive child psychiatry fellowship training and board certification, discovered only through independent research into psychiatry's racist past.

Read at Psychology Today