Showing papers by "Academy of Finland published in 1981"

Quality of reports of clinical trials submitted by the drug industry to the Finnish and Swedish control authorities.

Abstract: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the quality of trials used in support of applications for licensing drugs. All applications for psychotropic drugs received by the Finnish and Swedish drug control authorities in the years 1965, 1970, 1974, and 1975 were studied. In addition, a random sample of applications for “other drugs” was selected in Finland. All reports of clinical trials on the therapeutic efficacy of the drugs were included. Many trials were uncontrolled, and in controlled trials major drawbacks in the quality of the trial design and in the accuracy of reporting were often found. The number of patients in each controlled trial was small, and the majority of trials concerned selected groups of patients. Measures of effectiveness were often such that it was impossible to establish the overall benefit of the drug. Treatment times were short. Adverse effects were handled separately and were not adequately combined with efficacy. When a decision about licensure of a drug is made, it is not enough to know that the drug affects body systems, but its therapeutic value should also be established. The trials attached to the applications for licensing did not usually do that.

The Laws of Nature and the Origin of Life in Pupils’ Consciousness: A Study of Contradictory Modes of Thought1

Abstract: :Engestrom, Y. 1981. The Laws of Nature and the Origin of Life in Pupils’ Consciousness: A Study of Contradictory Modes of Thought. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 25,39‐61. 230 Finnish primary and secondary school pupils gave essay type answers to questions concerning (a) their conceptions of the laws of nature and (b) their conceptions of the origin of life on earth. Distinct ‘levels of understanding’ were found in the answers, ranging from surface description of external phenomena and mythical (religious or bio‐logistic) explanations to deep level explanations approaching an understanding of the unity of the material world and of the chemical processes essential in the origination of life. Two essential contradictions were identified within the development of the pupils’ natural scientific consciousness: one between the dominant biological‐biologistic conception andthe emerging physical‐chemical or universal conception of the laws of nature; the other between the religious andthe n...

Number and type of psychotropic drugs on the Scandinavian market in 1950-1977.

Abstract: This article describes the number and types of psychotropic drugs on the market in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden from 1950-1977. The total number of drugs on the market in each country depended greatly on how psychotropic drugs were defined, but trends with time and differences between the countries were less affected by this definition. The number of drugs was highest in Finland and lowest in Norway. In all countries, the number of drugs increased from 1950 to the mid-1960s, most abruptly in Finland. They then quickly decreased in Finland and Sweden, but remained fairly constant in Denmark and Norway. The number of different active substances was much smaller than the number of drugs, and the differences between the countries were also smaller. The proportions of combination and hidden psychotropic drugs in relation to all psychotropics were considerable in Finland and Sweden, and the varying numbers of combination drugs contributed greatly to the wide differences in the numbers of drugs. From the...