Unfavorable drug studies don't get into print: report

BOSTON (Reuters) - Nearly a third of antidepressant drug studies are never published in the medical literature and nearly all happen to show that the drug being tested did not work, researchers reported on Wednesday.

"Selective publication can lead doctors to make inappropriate prescribing decisions that may not be in the best interest of their patients and, thus, the public health," they wrote.

The idea that unfavorable test results are quietly tucked away so nobody will see them -- sometimes call the "file drawer effect" -- has been around for years.

The Turner team used a U.S. Food and Drug Administration registry in which companies are supposed to log details of their drug tests before the experiments are begun.

"It tells you where they placed their bets before they saw the data," Turner said in a telephone interview.

"Not only were positive results more likely to be published, but studies that were not positive, in our opinion, were often published in a way that conveyed a positive outcome," said the authors.

For example, of the seven negative studies done on GlaxoSmithKline's Paxil, five were never published. The researchers found three studies for GSK's Wellbutrin SR, but the two negative ones never reached print.

There were five studies for Pfizer's Zoloft, but the three showing the drug to be ineffective were not published. A fourth study, ruled questionable by the FDA, was written and published to make it appear that the drug worked. Read more..
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080117/us_nm/drugs_studies_dc