Healthy Skepticism Library item: 19814

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Magazine

Chalmers I
In the Dark
New Scientist 2004 Mar 6
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18124373.100-in-the-dark.html

Abstract:

EFFECTIVE, safe and non-addictive: that is how the new generation of antidepressants was billed in the early days. Now these drugs are the focus of a fierce dispute. Some patients and doctors claim they are of questionable efficacy and can induce suicidal thoughts. Advocates, including the companies that make them, insist these medicines have helped millions of people, and that withholding them would do more harm than good.

It would be easier to judge which side was right if all the relevant information about the drugs were publicly available. But it isn’t. Believe it or not, the law does not oblige companies to disclose the findings of their research on licensed medicines, and scientists, doctors, patients and even public organisations have no legal right to inspect the evidence that led regulators to license drugs.

This problem is serious because under-reporting of clinical research is biased and can be lethal. For …