In a rare behind-the-scenes disclosure (due to a lawsuit), the public is seeing for one of the first times the degree and depth some pharmaceutical companies will go to in order to publish positive results about their drug. Using the same peer-review process that is supposed to prevent abuses by researchers and drug companies and provide other professionals (and the public) with objective data. And the same peer-review process that is used by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve medications as safe and effective.
CL Psych provides us with a further analysis of Paxil study 329, one where apparently the researchers went to great lengths to find efficacy. Why the re-examination of this study?

Because another study was just published in the International Jouranl of Risk and Safety in Medicine. The new study examined the internal documents, full dataset and drafts that were released related to a lawsuit against the makers of Paxil. The damning findings from the new study?

5.1. Were the results for study 329 positive or negative?

There was no significant efficacy difference between paroxetine and placebo on the two primary outcomes or six secondary outcomes in the original protocol. At least 19 additional outcomes were tested. Study 329 was positive on 4 of 27 known outcomes (15%). There was a significantly higher rate of SAEs with paroxetine than with placebo. Consequently, study 329 was negative for efficacy and positive for harm......