Posted by Larry Hoover on January 23, 2008, at 17:01:02
In reply to Re: Bias in publishing of antidepressant trials? » Larry Hoover, posted by SLS on January 19, 2008, at 5:29:27
> Thanks for the clarification, Larry.
>
> I don't wish to insult you, but we are in agreement. I don't know how that might portend to your future reputation.No worries, mate. That's good company.
After seeing how many different articles were written about this issue, I finally got around to accessing the original, in the New England Journal of Medicine. The first sentence of the conclusions, in the abstract, reads: "We cannot determine whether the bias observed resulted from a failure to submit manuscripts on the part of authors and sponsors, from decisions by journal editors and reviewers not to publish, or both."
The *only* reason I can fathom, to have such an important issue ignored by reviewers, is to provide an opportunity to impugn Big Pharma. Not that they don't deserve it for some things, but this is uncalled for. Moreover, it made me have to think more than I needed to.
Anyway, we already knew that there was substantial unpublished clinical trial information in the FDA database. I can't see how this particular study advanced our knowledge one iota.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:807465
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080114/msgs/808578.html