Why medical research isn't as useful to you as it could be - Boing Boing

Medical journals are full of research comparing new treatments to existing treatments or comparing new treatments to placebo treatments. But researchers apparently aren't keen on comparing existing treatments with each other -- despite the fact that this kind of information may be of the most immediate use to consumers.

In a study published Tuesday, researchers at Keck School of Medicine at USC and Harvard, found that only 32% of medication studies published in top medical journals compared the effectiveness of existing treatments. In the analysis, which featured 328 medication studies in six leading journals, most compared medications against an inactive substance (a placebo) or involved unapproved therapies that are not currently available to doctors.

Only 11% of the studies compared existing drugs with existing non-drug therapies, such as surgery or lifestyle changes. It also appears that the studies comparing existing therapies are more likely to be funded by nonprofit or government institutions -- not pharmaceutical companies. The study will be published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn

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via boingboing.net

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