Antidepressant Trial Results Underpublished

Turner EH, Matthews AM, Linardatos E, et al. Selective publication of antidepressant trials and its influence on apparent efficacy. N Eng J Med. 2008; 358:252-260.

Selective publication of the clinical trials of antidepressant drugs has led to inaccurate views of these drugs' efficacy. A recent analysis of studies done on clinical trials showed that one-third were never published.

The reason for this did not seem to be the sample size of the studies. Rather, the studies' outcomes appeared to be an explanation. Nearly all of the studies that had positive outcomes were published. However, only about one-half of the studies that had negative or questionable outcomes were published.

The studies that had negative or questionable outcomes that were published were often presented as though the outcomes were positive. Thus, the actual efficacy of these drugs is now in question.

The researchers did not delve into why the publication bias occurred, nor did they suggest a reason for it.