The truth about Arrowheads Routine Outcome Monitoring Procedure

[10oriocookies]

Narconon Arrowhead Oklahoma Featured In Scientific Journal for Outcome Monitoring Procedure

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/12/prweb11442133.htm

Narconon International and Psychometric Technologies Incorporated worked together to develop a scientific method for routine outcome monitoring that would be beneficial to treatment providers. The scientific method that resulted from this collaboration was piloted at Narconon Arrowhead.

What/Who is Psychometric Technologies Incorporated?

http://www.manta.com/c/mm3jvwy/psychometric-technologies-inc

Business Information
Location Type   Single Location
State of Incorporation   North Carolina
Annual Revenue Estimate   $79,000
SIC Code   7389, Business Services, NEC
NAICS Code   561499, All Other Business Support Services
Employees   1
1 **
Company contact   
Pamela S Lennox, Principal
Business Categories   
Business Services (Unclassified) in Hillsborough, NC
Business Services, Nec, Nsk
All Other Business Support Services


Not sure if Pamela and Richard are married or brother and sister, but it's an amazing coincidence that Richard is affiliated with Narconon and so is Pamela.  Were they rewarded with this business after he did the study?  Only one person in the business yet he lists himself as affiliated with it?  What's the deal here?

http://www.substanceabusepolicy.com/content/3/1/8

The NARCONON™ drug education curriculum for high school students: A non-randomized, controlled prevention trial
Richard D Lennox1 and Marie A Cecchini2*

* Corresponding author:    Marie A Cecchini macecchini@ca.rr.com

Author Affiliations
1 Psychometrics Technologies, Incorporated, 2404 Western Park Lane, Hillsborough, NC 27278, USA

2 Independent Research Consultant, 10841 Wescott Avenue, Sunland, CA 91040, USA

I know Marie is/was a Scientologist at the time of this study.  Why?  Because I had lunch with her and talked about it with her. 

[BigBeard]

Obvious conflict of interest with this "study". Wonder if the OK press folks would be interested in yet another scam involving NN AH?

[10oriocookies]

Email sent to Jeanne LeFlore. 

[cnhender]

Shared on FB NN Exposed. Thanks Eric!

[mefree]

It's interesting that no link to the study is provided in the press release.

[Mm10]

Hi All...I'm new-ish here; at least I've never posted. This article bugs me...it plays at being a 'real' medical article and could be accepted as such by folks that don't know better. Here's the link from our governments national institute of health website:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3782393/

If you check the Disclosures and Ethics section at the end of this "peer-reviewed" article, you'll see what I'd call a fabrication:

Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the staff at Narconon of Oklahoma and Narconon International for project support.

Competing Interests

Author(s) disclose no potential conflicts of interest.

Disclosures and Ethics

As a requirement of publication the authors have provided signed confirmation of their compliance with ethical and legal obligations including but not limited to compliance with ICMJE authorship and competing interests guidelines, that the article is neither under consideration for publication nor published elsewhere, of their compliance with legal and ethical guidelines concerning human and animal research participants (if applicable), and that permission has been obtained for reproduction of any copyrighted material. This article was subject to blind, independent, expert peer review. The reviewers reported no competing interests.

Funding

Funding for this work was provided by Narconon of Oklahoma and Narconon International.

No competing interests....bull@$#!

[10oriocookies]

Hi All...I'm new-ish here; at least I've never posted. This article bugs me...it plays at being a 'real' medical article and could be accepted as such by folks that don't know better. Here's the link from our governments national institute of health website:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3782393/

If you check the Disclosures and Ethics section at the end of this "peer-reviewed" article, you'll see what I'd call a fabrication:

Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the staff at Narconon of Oklahoma and Narconon International for project support.

Competing Interests

Author(s) disclose no potential conflicts of interest.

Disclosures and Ethics

As a requirement of publication the authors have provided signed confirmation of their compliance with ethical and legal obligations including but not limited to compliance with ICMJE authorship and competing interests guidelines, that the article is neither under consideration for publication nor published elsewhere, of their compliance with legal and ethical guidelines concerning human and animal research participants (if applicable), and that permission has been obtained for reproduction of any copyrighted material. This article was subject to blind, independent, expert peer review. The reviewers reported no competing interests.

Funding

Funding for this work was provided by Narconon of Oklahoma and Narconon International.

No competing interests....bull@$#!

Glad you are not lurking anymore.  Things like this should upset you, people are being ripped off and dying.  I spoke to someone today that told me 5 staff at their Colorado operation were fired for sex/drug use with clients recently. That left interns in charge of real people with real problems.  Its a shame actually, the international organization knows what goes on at these places and doesnt care as long as they get their weekly commissions.  Want to get more upset?  I spoke to another person recently that told me the Executive Director of a facility in Michigan just reverted to drugs and alcohol.  Did he get fired?  Nope, he gets to intern a Case Supervisor.  His replacement was caught stealing insurance money and now gets to be in charge.  I would make separate threads about these but they are second hand info.  I dont doubt their credibility, I just dont have any way to back it up without revealing names. 

[10oriocookies]

PS Thanks for the links.   

[mefree]

A little bird tells me that the publication has received some mail about a potential conflict of interest.

[BigBeard]

A little bird tells me that the publication has received some mail about a potential conflict of interest.

After reading that "Disclosures and Ethics" blurb, I'd say this article goes beyond a conflict of interest and has crossed the line into straight up fraud.

I wonder what the laws in OK are regarding this kind of deception.

[10oriocookies]

Ill find out this week when I meet with some official officials who are very interested in this sort of thing.   . Notice how I didnt name names?  Hi Narconon staff lurkers!

[Mm10]

It may well have crossed the line but it would be hard to prove. Conflict of interest is not a term that is taken lightly in the medical community – it’s most often applied to physicians receiving financial support/pay or equivalent (gifts, free equipment, etc) from industry but could also encompass other conflicts  (you would think that if one were a Scientologist doing a paper on Narconon would be a direct conflict of interest). Unfortunately, the non-monetary ones are almost impossible to prove. The government just instituted “The Sunshine Act” where industry is required to report to CMS whether they’ve given payments, gifts, or equivalents to any doctors – this data is then tabulated and is supposed to be available to the public in Sept of this year.  We can look up Dr. Paredes or Dr. Lennox then to see if they’re getting paid (if Narconon even bothers to report as they’re supposed to – it’s not like they’re ethical about this kind of thing – or much of anything).

Richard Lennox is an interesting Google search – he’s one of the owners of Chestnut Health Systems:
http://www.chestnut.org/
which owns Chesnut Global:
http://www.chestnutglobalpartners.org/AboutUs/OurParentCompanyChestnutHealthSystems
bios are here:
http://www.chestnutglobalpartners.org/DivisionofCommercialScience/DivisionofCommercialScienceStaff

Unclear whether this is a pay for publication group or not – they may be a group of actual scientists that got sucked into a Narconon thing without being aware of how far the rabbit hole goes. Can anyone check him against Scientology course completion databases? If he’s not, he’d be an easy one to email and enlighten about the truth behind it all.

[cnhender]

Ill find out this week when I meet with some official officials who are very interested in this sort of thing.   . Notice how I didnt name names?  Hi Narconon staff lurkers!

Fanfreakingtastic Eric!

[ethercat]

Hi Mm10, welcome to Tipping Point.  Very glad to have you here.

           

Richard Lennox is an interesting Google search – he’s one of the owners of Chestnut Health Systems:
http://www.chestnut.org/
which owns Chesnut Global:
http://www.chestnutglobalpartners.org/AboutUs/OurParentCompanyChestnutHealthSystems
bios are here:
http://www.chestnutglobalpartners.org/DivisionofCommercialScience/DivisionofCommercialScienceStaff

Unclear whether this is a pay for publication group or not – they may be a group of actual scientists that got sucked into a Narconon thing without being aware of how far the rabbit hole goes. Can anyone check him against Scientology course completion databases? If he’s not, he’d be an easy one to email and enlighten about the truth behind it all.

I didn't find anything specific about Richard Lennox and scientology, but according to this, 2 of the executives at Chestnut are probably scientologists, including the Director of Human Resources:
https://whyweprotest.net/community/threads/narconon-buys-themselves-a-peer-reviewed-paper-rebutal-early-and-often.114147/

Chestnut Health Systems' Executive Leadership
            Mark W. Campbell, Director of Human Resources
            James G. Fraser, Director of Business Development

http://www.truthaboutscientology.com/stats/by-name/m/mark-campbell.html
http://www.truthaboutscientology.com/stats/by-name/j/james-fraser.html

I haven't checked any of that out completely though (and some of us know where that sometimes leads us, oy!) although I don't see much harm that could come from pointing out the Narconon scam to him regardless.  Worst case scenario, he already knows about it and either ignores you or replies with a diatribe about religious bigots.  I guess the latter would let us know where he stands.  LOL!

FWIW, working at Chestnut sounds about like working at Narconon:
http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Chestnut-Health-Systems-Reviews-E425970.htm
A sample:

“Low pay, decent benefits, poor management”
Anonymous Employee (Former Employee)

I worked at Chestnut Health Systems full-time for less than a year

Pros – There are a lot of good people working at Chestnut which helps make the day go by faster.

Cons – Horrible pay and my direct managers were immature, threw fits, pouted, and treated their subordinates like morons.

Advice to Senior Management – Act more professional and mature. Don't treat your employees like they're stupid.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

[Mm10]

Thanks for the welcome Ethercat.  Agreed, the comments do make it sound like working at a Narconon, lol!

[mefree]

Subst Abuse. 2014; 8: 53.
Published online Jul 3, 2014. doi:  10.4137/SART.S16517
PMCID: PMC4085139
Correction for “A Simplified Method for Routine Outcome Monitoring after Drug Abuse Treatment”
Richard D. Lennox,1 Marie A. Sternquist,1,2 and Alfonso Paredes3
Author information ► Copyright and License information ►
This corrects the article "A Simplified Method for Routine Outcome Monitoring after Drug Abuse Treatment" in volume 7 on page 155.

This is a correction for Lennox RD, Sternquist MA and Paredes A. A Simplified Method for Routine Outcome Monitoring after Drug Abuse Treatment. Substance Abuse: Research and Treatment. 2013:7 155–169. DOI 10.1047/SART. S12691.

A potential competing non-financial interest was not disclosed by an author of this paper. Dr. Paredes is a member of Narconon International’s volunteer science advisory committee. The editor in chief acknowledges that the non-disclosure was unintentional and that the authors responded promptly and constructively when the matter was raised. This matter has been investigated in accordance with the relevant COPE procedure.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4085139/

Brother......Well, better than nothing.

[DeathHamster]

This is a correction for Lennox RD, Sternquist MA and Paredes A. A Simplified Method for Routine Outcome Monitoring after Drug Abuse Treatment. Substance Abuse: Research and Treatment. 2013:7 155–169. DOI 10.1047/SART. S12691.

A potential competing non-financial interest was not disclosed by an author of this paper. Dr. Paredes is a member of Narconon International’s volunteer science advisory committee. The editor in chief acknowledges that the non-disclosure was unintentional and that the authors responded promptly and constructively when the matter was raised. This matter has been investigated in accordance with the relevant COPE procedure.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4085139/

Brother......Well, better than nothing.

And what about disclosing Marie Cecchini-Sternquist's interests?

[mefree]

And what about disclosing Marie Cecchini-Sternquist's interests?

I don't know how they overlooked that!

[DeathHamster]

And what about disclosing Marie Cecchini-Sternquist's interests?

I don't know how they overlooked that!

After having to track her as Marie Cecchini, Marie Cecchini-Sternquist and Marie Sternquist when one of her idiot papers comes out, I remember it. She's far more conflicted than poor old Alfonso Paredes. (I think they rubberstamp all their papers with his name, on pain of Disconnection, or he's now in a home somewhere and unable to object. https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Stop-Narconon/AdvisoryBoard/ )

It's very suspicious that a professional would keep messing with her name on papers, married or not.

Narconon: Misleading antidrug program back in public schools May 25, 2014, Nanette Asimov, San Francisco Chronicle