The effectiveness of some popular antidepressants was exaggerated by selective publication of trial results, according to a report of the Oregon Health & Science University in The New England Journal of Medicine Thursday.

The producers of antidepressants chose to publish the positive results of their drug trials and deliberately overlooked about a third of the drug trials that showed the drug being tested did not work, misleading doctors and consumers about the drugs' true effectiveness.

The researchers compared drug efficacy inferred from published studies with drug efficacy reported to a mandatory U.S. government registry of clinical trials, and found that of the 74 studies on 12 antidepressants, 38 produced positive results for the drug.

All but one of those studies were published. However, when it came to the 36 studies with negative or questionable results, only three were published and another 11 were turned around and written as if the drug had worked, while 22 were not mentioned at all.

"Selective publication can lead doctors to make inappropriate prescribing decisions that may not be in the best interest of their patients and, thus, the public health," said the researchers. 

 (Agencies via Xinhua News Agency January 18, 2008)