BMJ 1996;312:1611 (22 June)

Letters

Reply from author of review

EDITOR,--Jammi N Rao and J D Middleton mention "deficiencies" of my review in Evidence-Based Medicine of the trial of interferon beta-1b. They raise two basic points that deserve a response. Firstly, they caution that my review was not "sufficiently critical of the evidence" and support this claim by noting the "almost diametrically opposite conclusions" reached by me and an anonymous reviewer. Secondly, they criticise "the approach taken by Evidence-Based Medicine" and "warn" readers who rely on this type of publication to be on the lookout for reviews that may be similarly deficient.

The first attack is exaggerated. Two of the main conclusions of both my review and the anonymous one were that the drug seemed to improve measures of disease progression and that further research was needed. I noted in my commentary that there was objective (secondary) evidence of benefit (the percentage change in the area of lesions on magnetic . . . [Full text of this article]


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