The excerpts from The New Yorker (below) may be read as a companion piece to the Atlantic article profiling Dr. John Ioannidis.     However, the opening example that Lehrer uses to make the point that initial impressive positive research findings often weaken in time, perpetuates a myth about the new antipsychotics, a myth promulgated by…

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The first in the BBC-Panorama series elicited more than 65,000 emails and phone calls.The fourth report aired tonight, focuses on study #329, the largest of the Paxil pediatric trials. BBC will show evidence of how the published report of this trial was manipulated to deceive physicians about the safety and efficacy findings. [see Friday's Infomail…

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Randomized Controlled Trials: Evidence Biased Psychiatry By David Healy, MD MRCPsych Introduction A new drug gets introduced to the market. It has been approved after stringent scrutiny by the FDA, which requires ever more convincing evidence that it works and that its safe. The new treatment will always cost more than the old treatments, but…

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Are SSRIs and Atypical Antidepressants Safe / Effective for Children / Adolescents/ Neonates? Wed, 2 Mar 2005 The American psychiatric establishment continues to operate within a “head in the sand” culture of denial when confronted with compelling evidence that has been scientifically replicated showing that their prescribing of antidepressants for children has been misguided. They…

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A Taxpayer-Funded Clinical Trial Registry Exists! Thu, 6 Oct 2005 A former FDA medical officer reports: A Taxpayer-Funded Clinical Trials Registry and Results Database: It already exists within the US Food and Drug Administration. But the agency keeps the vital information about drug safety secret and inaccessible. So, all the while that clinical trial analysts,…

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The Evidence base: rock of certainty or shifting sands? – BMJ Wed, 5 May 2004 Dr. John Dewhurst, has written an extraordinary article from his first-hand experience as a pharmaceutical company physician who discovered the disparity that exists between the claimed and actual evidence of drug effectiveness–and the reality-based severe, debilitating adverse effects of antidepressants.…

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Int’l Registration of Clinical Research WHO Tue, 6 Apr 2004 On April 3, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Current Controlled Trials, Ltd (based in London, Philadelphia and Tokyo) announced that all randomized controlled clinical trials approved by the WHO ethics committee will be registered in a unique international registry of research. Such trials will…

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“Drug Companies Should Make Their Studies Public” NYT Wed, 13 Aug 2003 Concealed and inaccessible research findings are undermining the integrity of medicine, the advancement of scientific knowledge, and most importantly, secrecy is putting people’s lives in jeopardy because prescribing doctors are ignorant about adverse – even lethal – drug effects. Recently disclosed evidence –…

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