Re: R. Sandyk

["J. R. Bruman" <jrbruman@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Robert A. Fink, M. D. wrote:
>
> Date sent:              Fri, 22 Oct 1999 20:56:16 -0700
> Send reply to:          Parkinson's Information Exchange 
> <PARKINSN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> From:                   "J. R. Bruman" <jrbruman@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject:                R. Sandyk
> To:                     PARKINSN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> >  Beginning in 1980, there are 555! That's
> > an average of more than one every two weeks for the past 20 years.
> > They begin in German, then switch to English in the South African
> > Medical Journal, and most recently in the International Journal of
> > Neuroscience, concentrating on the various effects of magnetic
> > stimulation.
>
> And how does someone manage to do that?  Does he have a machine
> that automatically spits out papers with the flick of a switch?

Evidently, Dr. Sandyk believes the academic maxim, "publish or perish".
I didn't read all 555 abstracts, but a very quick scan indicates that
they are usually of minor importance: isolated case reports, preliminary
experiments, speculation based on other published results, and so on.
No big controlled, randomized, double-blind trials- those cost a lot of
time and money, and would be difficult to do solo; and I don't recall
use of scarce and costly resources such as PET scans. Sandyk's papers
appear most recently in the International Journal of Neuroscience, not
the Journal of Neuroscience, which is different (and source of numerous
citations in the CSRs). I haven't heard of Touro College, where he is
presently located, but that may not be significant. I don't know his
connection, if any, with the magnetic gadget peddled in Israel, but
without more detail I stand by my early judgement that Dr. Sandyk is
simply another face in a big crowd, doing the best he can with what he
has, to find that elusive breakthrough that will make him rich and
famous. I certainly would not invest anything in his current claims,
but wish him good luck in his search.
As you know, magnetic fields certainly do affect living tissue (we all
live in the Earth's field, and some creatures navigate by it; the MRI
scanner employs such a powerful field that the subject can't have any
metal object on or in his body) but whether those effects are
significant, harmful, beneficial, or innocuous, is still uncertain.
Cheers,
Joe
--
J. R. Bruman   (818) 789-3694
3527 Cody Road
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403-5013