Hysteria, Valium and Clinical Trials
An in-depth analysis of the under-representation of women in clinical trials and its effects on modern medicine
WELCOME
Women throughout history have suffered as a result of inadequacies in healthcare. This includes women characterised as hysterical if they have health concerns, the historic exclusion of women from clinical research and the blatant disregard of the fundamental biological differences between sexes. This website covers the history of clinical trials, including the inclusion- or rather exclusion- of women, and the importance of sex as a biological variable, looking at sex differences in disease expression and drug pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Both topics are linked together with specific reference to Valium. The importance of sex as a biological variable in clinical research is highlighted by the fact that women are still twice as likely to experience adverse drug reactions than men, despite the increased inclusion of women in research, and the website concludes stressing the need for sex specific analysis within research and evidence based dose reductions.
About the project
The diversifying STEM curriculum project aims to increase conversations on diversification and decolonisation with respect to STEM subjects. It aims to encourage the broadening of undergraduate science curricula to encompass the global historical and social context of scientific research, the diverse range of people who have contributed to science, and the colonial contexts in which this knowledge is constructed, as well as the impact this has on indigenous knowledge. This particular project is geared towards chemistry and looks at social and historical contexts. It has involved a wide range of MPLS academics and DPhil historians of science.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my appreciation to those who gave me the opportunity to work on such as important topic, in particular the University of Oxford and their MPLS department. I am also thankful to my supervisor, Professor Stephen Faulkner for his expertise and feedback. Similarly, my completion of this project would not have been possible without the continued support of the DPhil Students, Morgan Breene and Madeline White, and other academics from the MPLS and History departments. Lastly, I’d like to note the pleasure it has been working alongside the other interns, who provided inspiration, ideas, and moral support.
CONTACT ME
Feel free to use the material on this website but please give relevant credit to the author and the MPLS Diversifying STEM Curriculum project.
If you have any comments/queries about the work, feel free to contact me on the form to the right (or below on mobile devices).
Thank you.
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Cleo-Loreen Stevens
This website was designed to make the original paper more accessible, as well as, to reach a wider audience. The original paper is available here.