Antidepressant results skewed, report says

BOSTON, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- A report in The New England Journal of Medicine said the makers of popular antidepressants published only 14 percent of their unconvincing clinical results.

The report said less-positive results from clinical trials for antidepressants like Paxil and Prozac skew the professed level of effectiveness, misleading doctors and consumers, The New York Times said Friday.

The researchers of the new report said 94 percent of positive results made their way into clinical publications but only 14 percent of the negative results received mention. The report said including these reports into the stated level of effectiveness diminishes the positive results of antidepressants when compared to placebos.

Dr. Erik Turner, the report's first author, said 11 of the 14 journal articles that "conveyed a positive outcome" weren't justified by FDA review.

Leading journals agreed to cease publication of clinical trials not registered in a public database in 2004 and the U.S. Congress in 2007 expanded the type of trials and information submitted to a database run by the National Library of Medicine in response to allegations of skewed studies.

Dr. Donald Klein, an emeritus professor of psychiatry with Columbia University, told the Times the reluctance to publish unconvincing results isn't novel to psychiatry or pharmacology, however.