Unfavourable research on antidepressants not publicised
A study in a recent New England Journal of Medicine found roughly one third of all the scientific trials of popular antidepressants including Prozac, Zoloft and Aropax were never published. because the trial results did not show the drugs in a favourable light.
The study examined data from the clinical trials of anti-depressants that drug companies had submitted to the United States Food and Drug Administration in recent decades.
They found that of 74 scientific trials of the anti-depressant medicines, 31% of them were never published in the medical literature. Some of the trials had positive, favourable results and some had negative, unfavourable results.
Almost all of the trials with positive results ended up being published in medical journals.
Almost all of the trials with negative or questionable results were not published – or were published in a way that tried to portray the results in a positive light.
According to the report, if you look at what’s been published, 94% of the trials of these antidepressants that have been published were positive. But if you look at the real evidence, including the published and unpublished trials, only 51% of the anti-depressant trials conducted were actually positive.
In recent years, concerns about buried trial data have led to the creation of new registers of all clinical trials, in which the pharmaceutical industry is now actively involved.
