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!
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3 Comments to
“An Analysis of Not Publishing Negative Drug Studies”
i hear alot from from fellow patients about how there drugs do not work for them.this explains alot! I would like to find out abot the real poaaitive studies about drugs that work, may why some drugs work for some people and not for others.
What about CYMBALTA which is used for pain mgmt, Eli Lilly came out 2004 claiming Cymbalta works for depression. I have been on this medication over a year and was weaned off since it wasn’t working and was causing me to have severe high blood pressure. New Years day 2008 my nightmare started. I had a severe withdrawals I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.Nausea,dizzyness, loss of coordination,restlessness,bad head pain ,increased body temperature,on and sine for 17 days in bed ,no light,sound,eye movement started to come around very slowly.
filed report to FDA and when I can I will advocate to get this medication off the market.Eli Lilly Co has misleading the consumer and the medical community at large.We were not given full disclosure of this medications know effects and many of us suffered greatly because of this failure to warn.We all know that taking prescription medication involves some risks,I strongly feel however that the risks involved with usage of Cymbalta is greater than the medical and public realize.
I call it the drug from HELL………
I’m not sure what to comment on with this article. It makes me question society, not just the research. Are people really so full of pride that they do not consider how their uncommunicated mistakes could harm another human being? I can understand their economic point of view–if negative effects are published, they are much less likely to have a market for their product. But what about the humanistic point of view? What about researching to advance the sciences, and mankind, not to earn money?
I wonder whether publishing negative findings could, actually, be helpful. Maybe it would allow others (or even the same researchers) to find the problem and fix it, allowing the actual goal to be achieved.
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 23 Jan 2008
