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Unfavorable Drug Studies Never See Print

A new analysis has found that the makers of antidepressants such as Prozac and Paxil never published the results of about a third of the drug trials that they conducted to win government approval. This has led to a misleading perception of the drugs’ true effectiveness.

When only published trials are considered, about 60 percent of people taking the drugs report significant relief from depression, compared with roughly 40 percent of those on placebo pills. But when the less positive, unpublished trials are included, the drugs only outperform placebos by a very modest margin.

While 94 percent of positive studies found their way into print, only 14 percent of those with disappointing or uncertain results were published.


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Comment on This Article Community Comments (20)
 
 
Posted On Jan 17, 2008
Anyone who has ever pursued the history of aspartame on this site will be intimately familiar with the process by which unwanted findings are swept under the rug. Dead mice come to life. Brain tumors are mysteriously excised. Results are massaged and manipulated to demonstrate what drug companies want them to show. Whistleblowers are dismissed. Persistent whistleblowers are euthanized. Well, maybe not, but you catch my drift. It's a massive con game, lots of shuckin' and jivin', and we the consumers are the hapless victims.

What's more, I recently heard a health care expert assert that the traditional explanation for high drug prices is a myth, his word. A myth. Huge sums of money are not needed for R & D. Research is funded with grants from agencies like NIH. Pharma companies buy patents outright from university labs and other private sources. Their profit margin is 40%, the highest in the county, higher than Big Oil and investment banking. That makes me so sick, I need medication. Where's the Southern Comfort?

 
Islander
Moderator User Moderator User, Joined On 3/2007
Islander  
Replied

Sheila C
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 1/2007
Sheila C  
 
Posted On Jan 19, 2008
I found it very disturbing that the snopes site is in agreement with the FDA concerning aspartame.


Patty D
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 6/2007
Patty D  
 
Posted On Jan 19, 2008
Sheila, don't faint, but I'm in agreement with you here.  I have found that when it comes to Big Pharm, manufacturing, even stuff like GMO, snopes.com ALWAYS toes the company line.  It's sad.  They also have their own political agenda too.  When I go to verify attacks on candidates, apparently if they like somebody they are unable to "verify" it, but on others they spin to make as much dirt as possible look true. 

 
 
 
Posted On Jan 18, 2008

I used to work at a law firm as a paralegal for a partner who did clinical trial agreements.

One day she asked me to take notes at a meeting where she was training new associates on how to negotiate these agreements.

Our firm represented the pharmaceutical companies and the agreements were with doctors who would give drugs to patients and record data on the results.

She told the lawyers never to negotiate on who owns the data. The data must always be owned by the pahrmaceutical companies.

When one attorney asked why, she said because if the results are not favorable, they do not publish them.

How can you know if prescription drugs are safe or effective? 

This is completely unscientific and a fraud.

Medicine is not a science, but quackery.


 
limelemon
Savvy User Savvy User, Joined On 5/2007
limelemon  
 
 
 
Posted On Jan 17, 2008
Therefore, YOU cannot trust anything the Drug Companies say!

Read former Editor And Chief, for over 20 years, at The New England Journal Of Medicine, Dr. Marcia Angell, MD's: WHAT THE DRUG COMPANIES DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW'.

 
Russ Bianchi
Savvy User Savvy User, Joined On 9/2006
Russ Bianchi  
 
 
 
Posted On Jan 18, 2008

Why and from what spirit does this carefully programmed evil system continue with the most deadly of drugs and chemical agents? They are quite literally saying , “You can not consider any form of natural element as a serous medicine. You must take the poison we prescribe or we will find a way to take anything natural that would improve your health away from you. We are the drug lords of this world and you will do it our way or go to prison ” Does this not become actual tyranny when we have a government in the form of the FDA that backs this evil?

To say at this point that I am fed up with this kind of ludicrous control over innocent people’s lives leading them to a certain early death and robbed of a decent lifestyle and happiness that we all hold on to dearly as the very rights that were endowed to us by our creator would be the understatement of the century!

As a Clinical Herbalist I can assure you that the majority of health problems that are presented to me from patients are those that were caused from 100% legal FDA approved and blatantly pushed on TV Pharmaceutical drugs. Many questions are finally answered (No, you don't need to buy some stupid book!) like: " So where did all these drugs come from?", " Why is cancer treated with d


 
The Herb Doc
Apprentice User Apprentice User, Joined On 11/2006
The Herb Doc  
 
 
 
Posted On Jan 17, 2008
"The finding is likely to inflame a continuing debate about how drug trial data is reported."

Hello - "data" is plural. The singular is "datum."
Call me picky, but I expect better subject-verb agreement from the NY Times . After all, they are one of the last bastions of educated usage in America.

 
Islander
Moderator User Moderator User, Joined On 3/2007
Islander  
Replied

ruarck
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 6/2006
ruarck  
 
Posted On Jan 18, 2008
Hello - "Data" is an android!    :)


Reesacat
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 1/2007
Reesacat  
 
Posted On Jan 18, 2008
ROTFL at ruarck!  Good one!


EQ
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 3/2007
EQ  
 
Posted On Jan 19, 2008
I am such a geek.  Brent Spiner is such an awesome actor.  Thanks for the Data joke, ruarck.

 
 
 
 
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