title: Institutional Pathology and the Death of Dan Markingson.
abstract: In the spring of 2015, 11 years after a mentally ill young man named Dan Markingson stabbed himself to death in an industry-sponsored drug study, officials at the University of Minnesota suspended recruitment of subjects into drug trials in its Department of Psychiatry. University officials agreed to act only after a scathing investigation by Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor found damning evidence of coerced recruitment, inadequate clinical care, superficial research oversight, a web of serious, disturbing conflicts of interest, and a pattern of misleading public statements by university officials aimed at deflecting scrutiny. In this article, I examine the larger institutional factors leading up to Markingson's suicide and prevented corrective action for so long.
authors.affiliation: a Center for Bioethics , University of Minnesota , Minneapolis , Minnesota , USA.
authors.forename: Carl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Elliott
mesh_terms: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000941:ethics* / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D006805:Human Experimentation / Q000941:ethics* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000941:ethics*; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology; D014495:Universities / Q000941:ethics* / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents
keywords: Conflict of interest; human subjects ethics; human subjects regulation and oversight; informed consent; misconduct in research; organizational and institutional ethics; research ethics; research ethics in university contexts; research on the mentally ill; vulnerable populations