Unfavorable drug studies don't see print: report

Surprise. Surprise. Not.

"Nearly a third of antidepressant drug studies are never published in the medical literature and nearly all happen to show that the drug being tested did not work, researchers reported on Wednesday.

And in some of the studies that are published, unfavorable results have been recast to make the medicine appear more effective than it really is, said the research team led by Erick Turner of the Oregon Health & Science University."

Depressing.

"The idea that unfavorable test results get quietly tucked away so nobody will see them -- sometimes call the 'file drawer effect' -- has been around for years.

The Turner team was able to study the question because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has a registry in which companies are supposed to log details of their drug tests before the experiments are begun."

Think about that the next time you want a diet drug (that will not work, incidentally) to solve a problem that needs no drugs to get solved.

And go here to do something about it.