German psychologist Hans-Ulrich Wittchen is accused of fabricating data in a survey among psychiatric clinics.
MITTENZWEI KARL / PHOTO alliance /BERLIN NEWSPAPER
By Hristio Boytchev
Hans-Ulrich Wittchen, one of Germany’s leading psychologists and an expert in the treatment of anxiety and phobias, is not ashamed to promote himself. His email signature says he is a ‘highly cited researcher’, and with good reason. According to the Web of Science, he has nearly 1,000 articles to his name and has compiled nearly 70,000 quotes. He is an editor of Germany’s diagnostic and statistical manual on mental disorders – the Bible of clinical psychology – and until 2017 led a research institute for psychology at the University of Technology (TU Dresden).
Yet his reputation is under fire after an investigation into one of his studies found evidence of manipulation – and extensive attempts to disguise the misdeeds. The investigation report was transmitted to the TU Dresden in February and obtained by Science, also shows that Wittchen intimidated whistleblowers and put senior staff of the TU Dresden under pressure. The Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), a public health organization, is suing the company he paid to do the study. And the Dresden state prosecutor is now investigating criminal charges related to the study.
Wittchen was one of the biggest epidemiologists in psychiatry, and the TU Dresden ‘benefited greatly from him’, says Jürgen Margraf, a psychologist at the Ruhr University, Bochum, who worked with Wittchen. “If the findings of the commission are true, it is very disturbing for the whole field, and it will also have an impact on the TU Dresden.” Thomas Pollmächer, director of the mental health center at Ingolstadt Hospital, says the allegations are ‘startling’. He is concerned about other possible irregularities in Wittchen’s extensive publication record. “Some time bombs may be ticking,” he says.
The study in question was a survey of € 2.4 million on staff levels and quality at almost 100 German psychiatric facilities. Wittchen worked at the TU Dresden’s Association for Knowledge and Technology Transfer (GWT) and was the lead investigator of the effort, which aimed to investigate workload at the clinics and inform government regulations.
But in February 2019, German media reported the allegations, stemming from whistleblowers near the recording project, that study data had been produced. The university launched a formal investigation, led by Hans-Heinrich Trute in law.
After two years of work, the commission found in its final report that only 73 of 93 psychiatric clinics had been surveyed. For the others, the report says, Wittchen instructed researchers to copy data from one clinic and apply it to another. “The offenses were intentional, not negligent,” the report said. “Wittchen wanted to look more successful than he did.”
Wittchen tells Science he would not answer detailed questions because that is the case of lawsuits. “But he denies any wrongdoing and says the study in question was ‘scientifically correct’.
The investigation report also shows how Wittchen wanted to avoid consequences. In April 2019, he sent an e-mail to Hans Müller-Steinhagen, then president of the TU Dresden, warning him to ‘stay out of the project’ and stop the investigation, because otherwise there would be a ‘national political earthquake’. ‘be. “I would like to warn you personally and confidentially that you are taking an extreme risk here,” Wittchen wrote in the email.
The two whistleblowers, junior members of GWT, also came under pressure, according to an email he received Science. Wittchen asked the director of GWT to dismiss the whistleblowers – to save money. In another document, he accuses them of being responsible for the irregularities in the study. “I will defend myself by all legal means against this mess,” he wrote to a group of researchers who included the whistleblowers. According to the commission’s report, Wittchen even gave the two whistleblowers a pre-written letter to sign, in which they would retract all accusations and apologize.
Investigators have found indications that Wittchen manipulated documents to cover his tracks, including offers, emails and possibly even signatures. He ‘showed a willingness to mislead the investigation from the outset through deception and manipulation’, the report said. “If these observations were true, they would be within the realm of criminal sanctions.”
For his part, Wittchen says the recording problems were an innocent mistake. In a 70-page denial included in the investigation report, he claims that the duplicate data in the survey were statistically correct and simply not properly explained.
Although the report focused on the alleged scientific misconduct, it also contains hints of possible corruption. It is alleged that Wittchen employed his daughter in the project for about two years – although the other staff never saw her work on it. Wittchen’s daughter declined to comment on the allegations.
The commission blames TU Dresden and GWT for not adequately protecting the whistleblowers, who remained subordinate to Wittchen during the investigation. When one of the whistleblowers asked GWT for a job reference, the request ended up with Wittchen, who referred him poorly.
The commission also criticizes Katja Beesdo-Baum, a behavioral epidemiologist at TU Dresden and longtime colleague of Wittchen, who was deputy head of the survey project. A few days after the allegations became known in February 2019, Beesdo-Baum convened an extraordinary meeting of the institute. Employees were reminded of their duty to maintain secrecy, says a professor who was present at the time, according to the report. The employees ‘felt like they were muzzled’, he says. Beesdo-Baum says the commission did not accuse her of misconduct and that her role in the case will be discussed internally.
Wittchen resigned his professorship at TU Dresden in 2017 when he reached an age limit. In 2017, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich appointed him as a visiting professor, but a spokesman said it had suspended Wittchen’s contract this month, after hearing of the allegations. Last month, the university removed the 2017 press release in which it announced that it had appointed Wittchen. In a statement, the German Psychological Association said it considered the allegations in the report “very serious” that it had convened an honorary court that could revoke Wittchen’s membership. GWT issued a statement saying that in its 25-year existence, in thousands of studies, it had never encountered ‘comparable irregularities’.
Meanwhile, a TU Dresden spokesperson says the university is investigating additional allegations of corruption. It is evaluating possible sanctions against Wittchen and expects to make a decision in mid-April. The Dresden state prosecutor has also launched a criminal investigation. The office says that for ‘tactical reasons’ it does not disclose details of the investigation, but that it ‘will take a while’.
This story was produced in collaboration with BuzzFeed News Germany.