2013 Challenges of Therapy Dissatisfaction with Thyroid Hormone and Somatization Disorder where he showed photographs in his slide show of awoman he insinuated had been treated successfully with levothyroxine.

It is a matter of great concern that he used a ‘before’ photograph of a ladywith no hair, showing all the signs of low thyroid hormone and a second photograph ‘after’ she had been treated (in 1892) with natural thyroid extract injections – BUT he failed to tell his audience this and left his viewers believing this lady had been treated with thyroxine-only.

He left these pictures on view on the slide show under the heading ‘ClassicalHypothyroidism’ whilst continuing his lecture. Underneath the heading next tothe two photos he had written “Start 50-100mcgs Thyroxine…”, at the same time telling his audience that classical hypothyroidism is “very, very easy to deal with – you just give thyroxine and the patient gets better“. He tells his audience how much he loves showing these photo’s, pointing out “you only have to look at those pictures to see that this treatmentreally, really works”.

I would have expected that Professor Weetman would have known that in 1892, thyroxine had not yet been recognised, not patented and therefore not even been available for the treatment of hypothyroidism.

It is of concern that an endocrinologist who is head of all UK Medical Schools ,a member of the General Medical Council, member of the Royal College of Physicians, past President of the British Thyroid Association and holds numerous other positions of importance within the field of endocrinology, has, deliberately or not, misrepresented the true facts.

The pictures looked familiar – not only to me but to several others also. They had been used in an article by George R. Murray who reported on the successful treatment of a patient who had been treated with weekly injections of natural thyroid extract (NDT in 1891/92).These photographs were taken from that report and appeared in the British Medical Journal (BMJ). The patient thus was not treated successfully with thyroxine only as Professor Weetman tries to make us all believe.

The original report of August 1892 from the Sixth Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association (BMA), in which the photographs of a female patient were shown, can be downloaded HERE

I would have expected that Professor Weetman would have known that in 1892, thyroxine had not yet been recognised, not patented and therefore not even been available for the treatment of hypothyroidism.
It is of concern that an endocrinologist who is head of all UK Medical Schools, a member of the General Medical Council, member of the Royal College of Physicians, past President of the British Thyroid Association and holds numerous other positions of importance within the field of endocrinology, has misrepresented the true facts.

The pictures looked familiar. They had been used in an article by George R. Murray which reported on the successful treatment of a patient who had been treated with weekly injections of natural thyroid extract (NDT in 1891/92). These photographs were taken from that report and appeared in the British Medical Journal (BMJ). The patient thus was not treated successfully with thyroxine only as Professor Weetman tries to make out.

The original report of August 1892 from the Sixth Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association (BMA), in which the photographs of a female patient were shown, can be downloaded HERE (PDF document, 4 Mb).