BMJ  2008;336 (8 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39511.393287.43

Editor's Choice

Finding meanings

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Antidepressants continue to dominate this week. Last week a study in PLoS Medicine which claimed that newer antidepressants were mostly no better than placebo (BMJ 2008;336:466, doi: 10.1136/bmj.39503.656852.DB) attracted wide attention in the media and some criticism in both PLoS Medicine’s rapid responses and our own (www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/336/7642/466#191157).

This week Jeanne Lenzer and Shannon Brownlee pursue one aspect of that study—its use of a "freedom of information" request to get data from unpublished studies—to examine the issue of publication bias (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39504.662685.0F).They quote a study showing that among trials of antidepressants only 8% of those with negative findings were published compared with 97% of those with positive findings.

Two of the authors of that study, Erick Turner and Robert Rosenthal, write in the BMJ this week about their interpretation of the PLoS Medicine study (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39510.531597.80). They agree that antidepressants are less efficacious than . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

"A modest thoughtfulness"

Iona Heath
BMJ 2008 336: 535. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Is the declaration of Alma Ata still relevant to primary health care?

Stephen Gillam
BMJ 2008 336: 536-538. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

The population impact on incidence of suicide and non-fatal self harm of regulatory action against the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in under 18s in the United Kingdom: ecological study

Benedict W Wheeler, David Gunnell, Chris Metcalfe, Peter Stephens, and Richard M Martin
BMJ 2008 336: 542-545. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Antidepressants and suicide

Gregory Simon
BMJ 2008 336: 515-516. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

An untold story?

Jeanne Lenzer and Shannon Brownlee
BMJ 2008 336: 532-534. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Efficacy of antidepressants

Erick H Turner and Robert Rosenthal
BMJ 2008 336: 516-517. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Meta-analysis shows difference between antidepressants and placebo is only significant in severe depression

Susan Mayor
BMJ 2008 336: 466. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Who are we fooling?

BM Hegde
bmj.com, 10 Mar 2008 [Full text]

Prof Hegde is right!

Sumithra Josepha
bmj.com, 13 Mar 2008 [Full text]

Online poll

Find out more >>