Duped by drugs

Doctors and patients are being misled by the results of drug trials published in major international medical journals. According to a new analysis, reports on trials designed to find out how well a drug prevents strokes or heart attack, for example, include only the most flattering statistics, which makes a drug or procedure seem more effective than it actually is. Of 359 articles published between 1989 and 1998 in five major journals, all included a relative measure of how the drug reduces health risks, say Jim Nuovo and Joy Melnikow at the University of California, Davis. But only eight reported…