Uncovering hidden evidence: 40% of well-designed autism clinical trials go unpublished
Why it matters
Publication bias cuts both ways, but a cross-sectional study finding 40% of completed ASD trials unpublished is a concrete, citable argument that the evidence base is incomplete.
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have a prevalence of up to 2.7% and show significant rates of comorbidities, and pharmacological treatment can be difficult. Publication bias presents a major problem in current clinical research.
This study searched ClinicalTrials.gov for all completed randomized controlled trials investigating interventions in ASD. Of 50 trials, 30 (60%) were published and 20 (40%) remained unpublished; 2,421 patients were enrolled in published trials and 1,664 in unpublished ones. Time to publication averaged 21.4 months.
Characteristics of published versus unpublished trials did not show apparent differences. The large proportion of unpublished results precludes valuable information and has the potential to distort the evidence for treatment approaches in ASD.
Source
NCBI PMC6877258Related coverage
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