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Selective Publication of Antidepressant Trials and Its Influence on Apparent Efficacy

New England Journal of MedicinePublished 16 January 2008
Erick H. Turner, Annette M. Matthews, Eftihia Linardatos, Robert A. Tell, Robert Rosenthal
Citations2,426
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score19.08
SNIP13.47

TL;DR

A systematic literature search found that among 74 FDA-registered studies, 31%, accounting for 3449 study participants, were not published, and the increase in effect size ranged from 11 to 69% for individual drugs and was 32% overall.

Abstract

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. Selective reporting of clinical trial results may have adverse consequences for researchers, study participants, health care professionals, and patients.

Keywords

Decision SciencesMedicineEconomics, Econometrics and Finance