Patient’s Suicide Forces Belated University Investigation

In May 2004 Daniel Markingson, a patient with schizophrenia in an anti-psychotic drug trial at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, “stabbed himself to death in the bathtub with a box cutter, ripping open his abdomen and nearly decapitating himself,” as a magazine article would report six years later.

Controversy has rumbled since the story broke in May 2008. Should Markingson have been in the trial in the first place? Should he have been removed from it earlier? Were those running the trial negligent and, if so, does the university share responsibility?

The university has consistently denied wrongdoing. Critics, mainly bioethicists, have maintained that there are many unresolved issues. On 5 December, the university faculty senate agreed that there was a need for investigation into the way the university handles clinical research — but the ambiguous wording of its official statement has started another round of debate about how it will proceed.

The study, begun in March 2002 and sponsored by AstraZeneca, compared the tolerability and efficacy of three antipsychotic drugs that were already on the market. Stephen...