Medical journals tend to overstate the effectiveness of new drugs, Oregon researchers found.
Medical journals tend to overstate the effectiveness of new drugs, Oregon researchers found.
n the latest example, Oregon researchers found that many questionable or negative findings on psychiatric drugs never appeared in the journal articles doctors rely on to learn about clinical trials results.
The findings do not imply that the drugs don’t work, but rather that doctors and patients lack a full, nuanced picture of their effectiveness. The results also highlight a widespread bias problem in reporting on drug treatments. Doctors and patients can’t make the best possible decisions without knowing all the facts about safety and effectiveness.
“It’s unsettling,” says lead author Dr. Erick Turner, a former drug reviewer for the federal Food and Drug Administration who now holds positions at the Portland Veteran Affairs Medical Center and Oregon Health & Science University.
Read more at OregonLive.com.
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