Letters

Reply from dissenting author

I share the concern expressed by Claire Foster in her commentary on our paper¹ and by Heather Goodare about the lack of informed consent. It was argued in the study that such consent would introduce bias. Yet, as Goodare says, "women...communicate with each other" as members of an informal community of fellow sufferers who compare their experiences. I believe that the absence of informed consent produced a bias against those interventions that were not expected. Whereas the specialist nurse was a fully integrated member of the clinical team from the preoperative stage onwards, Tak Tent was unfamiliar and it was often three to five weeks after . . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Kumar, A., Soares, H., Wells, R., Clarke, M., Hozo, I., Bleyer, A., Reaman, G., Chalmers, I., Djulbegovic, B. (2005). Are experimental treatments for cancer in children superior to established treatments? Observational study of randomised controlled trials by the Children's Oncology Group. BMJ 331: 1295- [Abstract] [Full text]  
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• Doyal, L., Tobias, J S, Warnock, M., Power, L., Goodare, H. (1998). Ethical debate: Informed consent in medical research • Informed consent---a response to recent correspondence • Changing the BMJ's position on informed consent would be counterproductive • Informed consent---a publisher's duty • Trial subjects must be fully involved in design and approval of trials • Studies that do not have informed consent from participants should not be published. BMJ 316: 1000-1005 [Full text]  
• Tobias, J. S (1997). BMJ's present policy (sometimes approving research in which patients have not given fully informed consent) is wholly correct. BMJ 314: 1111-1111 [Full text]  
• Chalmers, I. (1997). What is the prior probability of a proposed new treatment being superior to established treatments?. BMJ 314: 74-74 [Full text]