In a study published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine , Soumerai and colleagues culled 207 news reports of three popular drugs from 1994 to 1998. Enthusiastic reporters may overstate drug benefits, with the net effect of physicians writing prescriptions for expensive drugs with potentially harmful side effects, Wolfe says.
Doctors read the news and watch television, too.
Wolfe also notes that reporters face a daily barrage of company-sponsored news releases, expert testimonials and publicist phone calls, which can affect news judgment. During the period included in the Soumerai team's study, NEJM , like some other journals, did not disclose the financial ties of all editorial writers.