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Why Most Biomedical Findings Echoed by Newspapers Turn Out to be False: The Case of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

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  • François Gonon
  • Jan-Pieter Konsman
  • David Cohen
  • Thomas Boraud

Abstract

Context: Because positive biomedical observations are more often published than those reporting no effect, initial observations are often refuted or attenuated by subsequent studies. Objective: To determine whether newspapers preferentially report on initial findings and whether they also report on subsequent studies. Methods: We focused on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Using Factiva and PubMed databases, we identified 47 scientific publications on ADHD published in the 1990s and soon echoed by 347 newspapers articles. We selected the ten most echoed publications and collected all their relevant subsequent studies until 2011. We checked whether findings reported in each “top 10” publication were consistent with previous and subsequent observations. We also compared the newspaper coverage of the “top 10” publications to that of their related scientific studies. Results: Seven of the “top 10” publications were initial studies and the conclusions in six of them were either refuted or strongly attenuated subsequently. The seventh was not confirmed or refuted, but its main conclusion appears unlikely. Among the three “top 10” that were not initial studies, two were confirmed subsequently and the third was attenuated. The newspaper coverage of the “top 10” publications (223 articles) was much larger than that of the 67 related studies (57 articles). Moreover, only one of the latter newspaper articles reported that the corresponding “top 10” finding had been attenuated. The average impact factor of the scientific journals publishing studies echoed by newspapers (17.1 n = 56) was higher (p

Suggested Citation

  • François Gonon & Jan-Pieter Konsman & David Cohen & Thomas Boraud, 2012. "Why Most Biomedical Findings Echoed by Newspapers Turn Out to be False: The Case of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(9), pages 1-11, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0044275
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0044275
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    Cited by:

    1. Estelle Dumas-Mallet & Katherine Button & Thomas Boraud & Marcus Munafo & François Gonon, 2016. "Replication Validity of Initial Association Studies: A Comparison between Psychiatry, Neurology and Four Somatic Diseases," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(6), pages 1-20, June.
    2. Brun, Cédric & Demazeux, Steeves & Vittorio, Pierangelo Di & Gonon, François & Gorry, Philippe & Konsman, Jan Peter & Lung, Fanny & Lung, Yannick & Minard, Michel & Montalban, Matthieu & Rumeau, Nicol, 2015. "La construction des catégories diagnostiques de maladie mentale," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 17.
    3. Estelle Dumas-Mallet & Andy Smith & Thomas Boraud & François Gonon, 2017. "Poor replication validity of biomedical association studies reported by newspapers," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-15, February.
    4. Cédric Brun & Steeves Demazeux & Pierangelo Di Vittorio & François Gonon & Philippe Gorry & Jan Peter Konsman & Fanny Lung & Yannick Lung & Michel Minard & Matthieu Montalban & Nicole Rumeau & Andy Sm, 2015. "Construction of mental health categories [La construction des catégories diagnostiques de maladie mentale]," Post-Print hal-02195583, HAL.

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