Published 3 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2215
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2215

Letters

UVB phototherapy for psoriasis

Authors’ reply

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

Cameron and Dawe suggest that careful selection of patients is essential to maintain and safeguard efficacy and safety, seeming to think that patients in our trial were also specifically selected.¹ However, our patients were a representative sample of those considered clinically eligible.^{2 3}

Although only 196 patients from 14 hospitals participated in our study, the type of selection Cameron and Dawe aim at was not part of our eligibility criteria.^{2 3} Only 252 patients were referred to us for participation in the trial. To keep a record of all of the reasons for non-referral was unfeasible, but from the few dermatologists who did keep a record we know that many patients were simply not willing to participate. Also sometimes dermatologists simply forgot to ask.

We noted that participants in our trial were people from all walks of life. Although we do not rule out that minimal selection has occurred, we are convinced . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ University Medical Centre Utrecht, 3584 CX Utrecht, Netherlands, ² Department of Epidemiology, University Medical Centre Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands

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