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Editor: Robert Binstock
Profession: Paxil Side Effect Attorney

Category: Paxil News

A study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine reports that 88 percent of clinical trials with negative results for antidepressant efficacy were either not reported to medical journals or were presented as positive findings. The study provides hard evidence of selective reporting, or the process of reporting good news while keeping negative findings out of the public eye. The study suggests that this selective reporting gives doctors a false perspective on the efficacy of antidepressants. Medical journal are seen as the "Holy Grail" for physicians and this exaggerated perspective can put patients at risk.

The report researched studies submitted to the FDA during the approval process for 12 different antidepressants. All of the drugs were approved and are now commonly prescribed throughout the nation. All but one of the 38 studies that conveyed positive result were published in medical journals while most of the negative results never made it into print.

A doctor reading the medical journals would think that individual antidepressants were between 11- and 69-per-cent more effective than they really are, says Erick Turner, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University and lead author on the paper.

All of the antidepressants in the study are effective to some extent, the issue is that the efficacy of these drugs are exaggerated.

In one case involving Paxil CR, two studies- one good and one bad, were interwoven to convey an overall positive result.

Selective publication is not a new practice when it comes to prescription drugs and antidepressants in particular. GlaxoSmithKline, the makers of Paxil, first made headlines in 2004 when the attorney general of New York launched a lawsuit against the company for hiding the results of clinical trials that showed an increase in suicidal ideation and attempted suicide amongst adolescents taking the drug. This has since become a major piece of evidence used in several personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits filed against the company.