A retraction and an arrest warrant

A journal retracting one of its articles makes for news in itself. Sometimes, however, the news goes beyond the retraction. The British Journal of Psychiatry has retracted an article from June 2013 that purported to find a higher incidence of epigenetic changes in people with bipolar disorder who experienced traumatic abuse in early life. In a fascinating turn of events, the Swiss authorities, meanwhile, are pursuing an arrest warrant against the leader of the team behind the paper. Alain Malafosse, former director of the genetic psychiatry unit at the University Hospitals of Geneva, stands accused of both embezzling Swiss government…