Last week, the New England Journal of Medicine published a ground-breaking analysis of what gets published and what doesn’t when it comes to a drug’s effectiveness. The study specifically looked at antidepressants, a very commonly prescribed drug in mental health treatment.

We examined the study after its publication and agreed that there are significant issues that must be addressed in the disclosure and publication of drug studies. Some steps have already been undertaken individually by drug companies, but they should all be required to ensure all negative study data is as readily available as the positive study data.

CL Psych has gone one step further if you’re interested in an even more in-depth analysis of the study (and its critics) in an entry entitled, Defending the Hiding of Negative Clinical Trial Data. It’s a long but thorough analysis (even though it goes off on a tangent about Vioxx). Leave it to CL Psych to tell it like it is!

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 23 Jan 2008
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.