FondaMental Foundation's communication criticized for embellishing scientific results

Eighteen billion euros in annual savings for Social Security! In the midst of a public finance crisis, this spectacular figure is displayed in a bill tabled in February by Senator (LR) for Vaucluse Alain Milon and a dozen other parliamentarians. The text assures that such savings are possible by extending to the entire territory the Centers of Expertise in Psychiatry managed by FondaMental, a private-law foundation created in 2007 by public institutions (CEA, AP-HP, Inserm, etc.). Consultation of these structures by people suffering from psychiatric illnesses, we read in the bill, would indeed make it possible to significantly reduce their hospitalization rate – the most expensive part of treating mental disorders. The investment would be modest, the benefits tremendous.

In a study published on May 28 by Social Science Medicine - Mental Health , eight researchers and doctors consider this hope unfounded. According to them, it is the consequence of the intense advocacy activity of the FondaMental Foundation, driven by a questionable, even "misleading" use of scientific data for communication purposes. Led by neurobiologist François Gonon (CNRS, University of Bordeaux) and psychiatrist Florian Naudet (Institute for Research in Health, Environment and Work, and University of Rennes), the authors reviewed the public statements of the foundation's executives and often found the assertion – echoed by the senators – that patients passing through one of its Expert Psychiatry Centers leads to a 50% reduction in hospitalization days in the following year.

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