SAINT JOHN - One of Canada's leading medical ethicists said provincial funding for experimental medicine is fine, so long as it follows clinical methodology.

But a Saint John area doctor said recent provincial funding for a controversial procedure is breaking those ethical guidelines.

Margaret Somerville is an expert in medical ethics at McGill University. She warned of providing special treatment, and funding, to one disease over another. Too often, she said, conflict of interest enter into a situation, either furthering unsafe medical practice or keeping alternative treatments from willing patients.

In May, the Alward government created a $250,000 fund to help MS patients pay for additional treatment. In November when announcing plans to set up the fund, the premier specifically mentioned funding for those seeking liberation therapy, a controversial treatment that involves widening the veins in the neck to improve blood flow from the brain. Although available in other countries, from the U.S. to India, liberation treatment has not undergone clinical trials in Canada.

As long as the process is "done in accordance with research ethics," as it would in clinical trials, Somerville said there should be no problem with provincial funding.

But one Saint John area doctor said by providing funding for patients to seek out-of-country treatment, the government is breaking that ethical trust.

Patti Forgeron is an outspoken opponent of liberation therapy. The doctor, who does rehabilitation work with patients at the MS clinic at the Saint John Regional Hospital, dismisses the procedure as "medical quackery."

An inflammatory disease, multiple sclerosis is caused by the autoimmune system attacking the myelin, or insulation, of the central nervous system in the brain, Forgeron said. Symptoms can range from fatigue and tingling in the hands to losing the ability to walk.

"What makes MS so susceptible for individuals to claim they have a treatment or a cure is the variability of that illness," Forgeron said.

A German study published last year in the Annals of Neurology, the official medical journal of the American Neurological association, found no link between MS and chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI, the circulation deficiency liberation treatment seeks to cure. Those who advocate for liberation treatment say improving blood flow will cure symptoms of MS.

"World researchers and medical experts are debating this among themselves," Forgeron said. "It is not up to a provincial government to be involved in those debates and make those decisions," she said.

On Thursday, the New Brunswick Medical Society urged patients interested in the alternative treatment to talk to their doctors first. Jessesar MacNeil of the Multiple Sclerosis Society agreed.

"We encourage people to only seek treatment like this within the confines of a clinical trial," MacNeil said. Instead, she said, the government could put money towards furthering research on the controversial treatment and invest in a catastrophic drug program.

Last July, seven research teams in Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan and in the U.S, were given $2.4 million in grants from the MS Society of Canada and its sister organization in the United States, the National MS Society, to begin clinical trials to look at the links between CCSVI and MS.

A number of patients have come forward to say the treatment, which can run upwards to $20,000 in other countries, has relieved symptoms such as fatigue and brain fog. Tim Donovan of Saint John was diagnosed with MS 25 years ago. He said the treatment, which he had done last year in Albany, N.Y., has given him his life back.

"Trials need to be started yesterday," Donovan said. "If this has merit, and there's enough anecdotal evidence that people are getting better, then I think trials are justified," he said of the procedure.

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/news/article/1414664