I've written before about BigPharma and its marketing practices, especially of psychiatric medications. Here's something even scarier: the research that eventually gets drugs to market is often fatally flawed. That means that the drugs you are prescribed are increasingly likely to be ineffective or harmful. Why? Because much of the research used to establish a drug's safety and efficacy comes in the form of studies sponsored by the pharmaceutical company itself. Funny thing, as you'll see in the link below. Studies funded by the drug company are four to twenty times as likely to produce positive results as independently funded research. In a 2006 review of articles about psychiatric meds in academic journals, industry sponsors got favorable results 78% of the time while independently funded trails got positive results only 48% of the time. Drugs competing against the sponsor's drug were favorably rated only 28% of the time. So, there's clear bias toward the sponsor's drug in industry funded trials compared to independent trials. There's another, potentially more dangerous bias: the failure to report negative results and side effects. Often, when industry sponsored studies produce negative results or unacceptable side effects, they simply aren't published. The data is suppressed. So, you and your physician are fed biased information without ever knowing it. And it's all perfectly legal! Does this scare you? It should.
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