Medicine’s Data Gap: Doctors, Too, Ask: Is This Drug Right?

By John M Grohol PsyD
December 30, 2004

Medicine’s Data Gap: Doctors, Too, Ask: Is This Drug Right? (NY Times, free reg. req’d)

Across the country, doctors are struggling to decide which pain relievers to prescribe now that they know that popular drugs like Vioxx and Celebrex pose potentially serious heart risks. “We are desperately in need of information,” said Dr. Stephen Brenner, an internist in New Haven. Yet for at least two years, doctors at the Mayo Clinic, the federal Veterans Affairs Department and the Kaiser Permanente health plan have been sharply limiting their use of Vioxx and Celebrex.

That is because those three institutions, after undertaking separate reviews of test data available on various painkillers, reached the same conclusion: For most patients, Vioxx, Celebrex and a related drug, Bextra, did not work any better than older pain relievers or provide any safety benefits beyond them.

You may be surprised to know that many newer psychopharmacological drugs and antidepressants haven’t shown that they are more effective than older ones, either. Doctors often prescribe them because they are new, not because they worker better.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues, and the intersection of technology and psychology since 1992.