ArticleBMC medicine2015
Comparison of serious adverse events posted at ClinicalTrials.gov and published in corresponding journal articles.
Article in BMC medicine, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers, 16 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
58 citing papers in PubMed, 16 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Systematic review with cross sectional comparative analysis identifies adverse event reporting discrepancies between ClinicalTrials.gov and published glaucoma randomized controlled trials.Scientific reports · 2025Pooled it
- Nonregistration, Discontinuation, and Nonpublication of Randomized Trials: A Systematic Review.JAMA network open · 2025Pooled it
- The risks of adverse events with mirtazapine for adults with major depressive disorder: a systematic review with meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis.BMC psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Discordant Information on Blinding in Trial Registries and Published Research: A Systematic Review.JAMA network open · 2024Pooled it
- The risks of adverse events with venlafaxine for adults with major depressive disorder: a systematic review of randomised clinical trials with meta-analysis and Trial Sequential Analysis.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2024Pooled it
- Botulinum Toxin Injections for Psychiatric Disorders: A Systematic Review of the Clinical Trial Landscape.Toxins · 2024Pooled it
- Beneficial and harmful effects of tricyclic antidepressants for adults with major depressive disorder: a systematic review with meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis.BMJ mental health · 2024Pooled it
- Adverse Effects of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors in Humans: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of 378 Randomized Controlled Trials.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Safety and efficacy of probiotic supplementation in 8 types of inflammatory arthritis: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 34 randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Trial Reporting in Immuno-Oncology (TRIO): An American Society of Clinical Oncology-Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Statement.Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2019Guideline
- Trial Reporting in Immuno-Oncology (TRIO): an American society of clinical oncology-society for immunotherapy of cancer statement.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2018Guideline
- Pooled it
- A systematic review of the processes used to link clinical trial registrations to their published results.Systematic reviews · 2017Pooled it
- The risk associated with spinal manipulation: an overview of reviews.Systematic reviews · 2017Pooled it
- Reporting of Adverse Events in Published and Unpublished Studies of Health Care Interventions: A Systematic Review.PLoS medicine · 2016Pooled it
- Prospective adverse event risk evaluation in clinical trials.Health care management science · 2022Trial
- The quality of reporting general safety parameters and immune-related adverse events in clinical trials of FDA-approved immune checkpoint inhibitors.BMC cancer · 2020Trial
- Article
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Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe reporting of serious adverse events (SAEs) in clinical trials is crucial to assess the balance between benefits and risks. For trials with serious adverse events posted at ClinicalTrials.gov, we assessed the consistency between SAEs posted at ClinicalTrials.gov and those published in corresponding journal articles.
methodsAll records from ClinicalTrials.gov up to February 2014 were automatically exported in XML format. Among these, we identified all phase III or IV randomized controlled trials with at least one SAE posted. For a random sample of 300 of these trials, we searched for corresponding publications using MEDLINE via PubMed and extracted safety results from the articles.
resultsAmong the sample of 300 trials with SAEs posted at ClinicalTrials.gov, 78 (26%) did not have a corresponding publication, and 20 (7%) had a publication that did not match the ClinicalTrials.gov record. For the 202 remaining trials, 26 published articles (13%) did not mention SAEs, 4 (2%) reported no SAEs, and 33 (16%) did not report the total number of SAEs per treatment group. Among the remaining 139 trials, for 44 (32%), the number of SAEs per group published did not match those posted at ClinicalTrials.gov. For 31 trials, the number of SAEs was greater at ClinicalTrials.gov than in the published article, with a difference ≥30 % for at least one group for 21. Only 33 trials (11%) had a publication reporting matching numbers of SAE and describing the type of SAE.
conclusionsMany trials with SAEs posted at ClinicalTrials.gov are not yet published, omit the reporting of these SAEs in corresponding publications, or report a discrepant number of SAEs as compared with ClinicalTrials.gov. These results underline the need to consult ClinicalTrials.gov for more information on serious harms.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.