Medical reporting in the lay press.

Medical articles appearing in The Age during the first half of 1978 were reviewed. Thirty-three per cent were warnings or reports of adverse reactions, and 27% were reports of "new discoveries". A sample of these two groups of news items was evaluated by panels of doctors and laymen, and also assessed in the light of current literature. Results suggest that medical news items which fall into these categories may be misleading, often contain unsubstantiated claims, and present routine practice as news.