13 Oct 2017 [November 9] TI Journal Pub
Therapeutics Initiative Journal Pub: Publication bias exaggerates the efficacy of antidepressants … and just about everything else
When: Thursday, November 9, 2017 @ 18:00 – 21:00 h [6:00 – 9:00 pm]
Where: Shebeen Whiskey House, 212 Carrall Street, Vancouver [MAP]
What: TI Journal Pubs are fun social events. Dr. Erick Turner will make a brief presentation (details below) punctuated by lively discussion with the audience.
Cost: $50 per person (includes dinner & drink, tax and gratuity) payable by PayPal, credit card, cheque or cash. Advance payment required to secure your spot.
Registration: click here to register.
Special Guest:
- Dr. Erick H Turner, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Joint Associate Professor, Department of Physiology & Pharmacology; Senior Scholar at the Centre for Ethics in Health Care, Oregon Health & Science University; Staff Psychiatrist, Portland VA Medical Centre.
After his psychiatry residency training, Dr. Turner was a research fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Following that, he worked at the FDA as a Medical Officer, reviewing drug company applications on psychotropic drugs and determining whether those drugs were safe and effective and should be allowed onto the US market. While at the FDA, Dr. Turner became aware of the large volume of efficacy and safety data generated during a typical drug’s clinical development program but how only a fraction of this data gets communicated to the outside world.
Motivated by his FDA experience, in 2008 Dr. Turner and co-authors published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine entitled “Selective Publication of Antidepressant Trials and Its Influence on Apparent Efficacy”. This article was covered widely in the international media, and as of October 2017, it has been cited by nearly 1300 other scientific articles, placing it in the 99th percentile for impact. He and his colleagues have followed up with similar studies on drugs for anxiety disorders and for schizophrenia, and he is now involved in studies of drug classes outside of psychiatry, in other areas of medicine.
Objectives:
- Understand the two main types of publication bias
- Understand the extent of publication bias with respect to other fields of study (medicine and science in general) and type of funding (drug company vs. government-sponsored)
- Learn what the fatal flaw exists within the peer review system and how that can be overcome
- Learn where, beyond the peer-reviewed literature, one can look for more credible, less biased clinical trials data
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