Study: Psych drug ads misleading

Ads for psych drugs in medical journals are often misleading, a new study shows. Half the claims made in these ads offered no backup source that could be verified--and of those that were backed up by verifiable citations, almost half the cited studies didn't even support the claims. In some cases, the cited studies directly contradicted the ad's contentions. "When claims are made that aren't supported, the impression created is overly optimistic," lead author Glen Spielmans said.

Curiouser and curiouser, when the researchers asked nine drugmakers about the ads, only three replied, one of them to refuse to supply the sources of data it cited in its own advertising. That company? Wyeth. Ironically, the Effexor XR ad in question is actually headlined "See the data." Now you see it, now you don't.

- check out the study in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
- see the item in Pharmalot

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