| RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS |


Meta-analysis


ANXIETY OVER ANXIETY RESEARCH


RESEARCHERS FIND EVIDENCE OF SHELVED NEGATIVE RESULTS IN PRECLINICAL STUDIES OF ANXIETY


A systematic review of rodent studies of anxiety drug targets has found a possible reason for thwarted drug development in the field: researchers might not reveal all the data they collect1. “In a perfect world of open data, researchers


would publish every single datum,” says Adam Claridge-Chang, who led the investigation at the A*STAR Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB). “But there is a stigma attached to negative results, so these data are often censored by the researchers themselves, even though they are useful.” Claridge-Chang’s in-depth probe into pre-


clinical data could lead to better treatments for the cluster of mental health disorders that affect more than 7 per cent of the global population. Treatments for anxiety have been fraught


Anxiety researchers often don’t publish negative results to avoid the stigma attached to them.


with problems. In the early twentieth century, pharmaceutical companies began selling barbiturates, which put patients at risk of lethal overdose. These were followed by diazepam (first sold as Valium), which can be habit-forming and can cause severe withdrawals.


20 A*STAR RESEARCH ISSUE 6 | JANUARY – MARCH 2017


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