BMJ  2008;336:1472-1474 (28 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.39590.732037.47

Analysis

What is missing from descriptions of treatment in trials and reviews?

Paul Glasziou, professor of evidence based medicine1, Emma Meats, research assistant1, Carl Heneghan, senior clinical research fellow1, Sasha Shepperd, NIHR research scientist in evidence synthesis 2

1 Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, Department of Primary Health Care, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LF, 2 Department of Public Health, University of Oxford

Correspondence to: P Glasziou paul.glasziou@dphpc.ox.ac.uk

Replicating non-pharmacological treatments in practice depends on how well they have been described in research studies

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Have you ever read a trial or review and wondered exactly how to carry out treatments such as a "behavioural intervention," "salt reduction," or "exercise programme"? Although CONSORT and related initiatives have focused on the assessment of validity and presentation of results,1 2 less attention has been given to the adequacy of the description of the treatment used. For pharmacological treatments the description would need to include the dose, titration, route, timing, duration, and any monitoring used. For complex treatments the problems are even greater.

Why are full descriptions of treatment important?

The uptake of positive findings from trials is often slow and sometimes negligible.3 Reasons for this slow uptake include clinicians not becoming aware of the results, perceiving the results as either invalid or not relevant to their patients, or simply not remembering to use the treatment.4 5 An additional barrier, which has received less attention, is clinicians’ ability to carry out the treatment on the basis of . . . [Full text of this article]

Extent of the problem


What elements of treatment do authors miss?


Can authors supply the missing information?


Improving reporting


Summary points

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