Category: Clinical Trials
The Problem with Predatory Journals
The World Wide Web has proven to be a transformative communication technology (we are using it right now). At the same time there have been some rather negative unforeseen consequences. Significantly lowering the threshold for establishing a communications outlet has democratized content creation and allows users unprecedented access to information from around the world. But it has also lowered the threshold for...
Ivermectin to Control Malaria — A Cluster-Randomized Trial
Another use for Ivermectin from last week's NEJM
COVID-19 contrarian Dr. Vinay Prasad meets real world responsibility
Dr. Vinay Prasad parlayed his COVID-19 contrarianism into a high-ranking position in the FDA. Now he's facing real world responsibility, and knives are out for him. Can he survive?
Standards in Behavioral Science
How can we decrease the amount of shoddy science and improve the rigor of research in the behavioral sciences?
Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad embrace a “more fluid concept of evidence” at the FDA
Last Thursday during a roundtable on stem cell therapies, new FDA Commissioner Marty Makary referred to EBM levels of evidence as an artificial and dogmatic construct. Apparently Dr. David Katz's "more fluid concept of evidence" now reigns at the FDA—selectively.
The tragic termination of the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study
An invaluable resource is being starved to death with no scientific or ethical justification
The use of placebo controls in clinical trials
Why the value of placebo controls is not an affirmation of a powerful placebo effect
Indiscriminate, Cruel, and Wasteful: Abandoning USAID clinical trials
The chaos and cruelty of its abrupt deconstruction are self-evident and already demonstrable
EMDR Is Still Dubious
A recent meta-analysis of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy concludes that the evidence “confirms” EMDR is effective in treating depression. It is a great example of the limitations of meta-analysis, and how easy it is to create essentially a false narrative using poor quality research. EMDR was “developed” by Dr. Francine Shapiro in 1987. It is the notion that bilateral...
Latest Acupuncture Pseudoscience
JAMA Internal Medicine just published an article titled: Acupuncture vs Sham Acupuncture for Chronic Sciatica From Herniated Disk, A Randomized Clinical Trial. In an accompanying editorial comment, Jerard Z. Kneifati-Hayek and Mitchell H. Katz write: “This was a methodologically rigorous study; there were multiple experienced acupuncturists, the comparison group used a well thought-out sham control, and patients were followed up for 1...