Others folks may know about this, but I just recently stumbled upon this jewel… GlaxoSmithKline has a clinical trials register. This allows people to easily find studies that they may be appropriate to sign-up for, as well as allowing researchers to understand what kind of studies are being done or have been done on a particular drug (long before they’re published).

What makes this a “jewel” however is that unlike a lot of clinical trial registries, this one also lists studies that have been completed. And not only those that have been completed and their results published, but also studies that were completed and their results never published.

While there are a multitude of possible reasons a company decides not to seek publication for a study, the overwhelming main reason is because the study didn’t show a positive therapeutic effect over placebo or a competing drug. That doesn’t mean the drug didn’t have a positive therapeutic effect, it just means the study didn’t find one (e.g., including other reasons, such as study design flaws, statistical anomalies, researcher foul-up, etc. etc.).

For instance, there are a number of lamotrigine (Lamictal) studies listed that were never published that showed no positive therapeutic effect for the drug in the treatment of bipolar disorder. While it’s been known that pharamceutical companies usually don’t published such studies, the number of studies (and their size and power) generally is lesser known. This database provides a nice insight and sheds light into some of these dusty corners of clinical drug trials.

More of this transparency into the process is exactly what’s needed amongst all pharmaceutical companies.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 18 Feb 2007
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