(NaturalNews) Clinical trials of drugs and other medical therapies are
carefully carried out and are the very gold standard of scientific
proof, right? According to an in-depth review of this question just
published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ,) the answer is no. In
fact, the BMJ is sounding the alarm that data reported by scientists is
too often not the truth -- because the researchers leave out inconvenient
evidence. The result of facts-gone-missing could well be harming
patients, spiking up healthcare costs by the selling of medical
treatments based on bogus findings, and threatening the very integrity
of medicine.
These warnings come from multiple papers released by
the BMJ. The whistle-blowing authors of these articles examined the
extent, causes, consequences of hidden facts, figures, and other data
scientists discover as they do human trials. It turns out this is no
"once in a while" kind of problem, either. The BMJ claims a "large
proportion of evidence from human trials is unreported, and much of what
is reported is done so inadequately."
In an editorial, Dr.
Richard Lehman from the University of Oxford and BMJ Clinical
Epidemiology Editor, Dr. Elizabeth Loder, nail the current state of
medical research as a "culture of haphazard publication and incomplete
data disclosure." They call for full access to raw trial data to allow
better understanding of the benefits and harms of many treatments.
Bottom
line: when data is left out, the missing facts distort the scientific
record and published results of a study. This then leads doctors to make
potentially dangerous clinical decisions about what drugs or procedures
patients need because the docs are relying on skewed and even bogus
"evidence."
http://www.naturalnews.com/034577_quack_science_clinical_trials_BMJ.html
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