It should not be a surprise by now that drug manufacturers will do just about anything to get and keep their products on the market. However, it does still present as an unpleasant shock to learn that 30 percent of antidepressant drug studies are never published because they showed that the tested drug failed to work.

On top of that, some of the negative studies that got published were reworked to make it appear as if the experiment had yielded a positive outcome.

This information was unearthed by a research team lead by Eric Turner of the Oregon Health & Science University. Their results were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Turner’s group looked at 74 studies of 12 different antidepressants and found that all but one of the 38 positive tests were published as compared to only three of the studies that turned up negative, and about a dozen other negative experiments were re-written as to appear positive.

Several of the culprits are widely-used antidepressant medications. For example, Paxil (by GlaxoSmithKline) produced seven negative studies, five of which were never printed. Wellbutrin SR (also by GSK) had only three total studies to its name, two of which were negative and never published. Zoloft (from Pfizer) was studied five times with three unpublished negative showings and a fourth negative that was rewritten as if the drug had in fact worked.

Since adverse effects to these drugs can be catastrophic, it is critical that you talk to your doctor and even contact an experienced defective drugs attorney for professional insight.

Though not much is known about the causes of autism, angry families in the United States are blaming childhood vaccines.

In 2004, the Institute of Medicine promised there was no credible evidence showing that the preservative thimerosal contained in some vaccines caused autism, but that has not stopped nearly 5,000 lawsuits alleging the contrary.

It is a general contention among all the pending lawsuits that the vaccines containing thimerosal were the cause of autism in the children—they do, however, disagree on exactly how.

Some of the birth trauma attorneys handling these cases say that only the thimerosal in the vaccines caused the neurological disorders. Others argue that the injections also contained a form of mercury that overexcited certain brain cells. To settle this discrepancy, the Office of Special Masters of the claims court has instructed plaintiffs to carry out three tests for each of the theories.

Thimerosal has been removed from standard children’s vaccines, but remains in flu vaccines that are packaged as multiple doses. Unfortunately, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention says single dose flu vaccines are available only in limited numbers for the time being. Until more are produced for and distributed to the children in need of them, the threat of adverse thimerosal side effects remains.

If you are among the families battling autism and believe a loved one has been harmed by a one of these childhood vaccines, it important to contact an experienced birth trauma attorney and defective drugs attorney for professional insight.

According to an Associated Press story, the families of two newborns who died after they were inadvertently given massive doses of heparin have sued an Indianapolis hospital and the Illinois-based company that makes the blood thinner.

The suit filed recently in Marion Superior Court against Methodist Hospital and Deerfield, Ill.-based Baxter Healthcare Corp. doesn’t specify damages.

The suit was filed by an defective drug attorney for the parents of two of the three newborns who died in September 2006 following injections of heparin 1,000 times greater than the recommended dose for infants. Also suing are the parents of two infants who were overdosed but survived.

The error occurred in part because of a mix up over labeling.

A Baxter spokeswoman said the deaths were tragic but preventable, and it is vital that clinicians always read the name and dose of a drug before giving it to a patient. Baxter changed the labeling on its heparin vials in October 2007.

A spokesman for Clarian Health Partners, of which Methodist is part, said the company did not have all the details of the litigation and had no comment.

Actor Dennis Quaid and his wife sued Baxter last year after their newborn twins got massive doses of the blood thinner at a hospital.

These families aren’t the only ones battling drug companies over wrongful deaths due to defective drugs or defective labeling. It is advisable to locate an experienced defective drug attorney in case legal advice is necessary for a heparin lawsuit or settlement .