Muddled Guidance At Menopause

By definition, a muddle is an untidy or disorganized collection. The verb denotes propagating confusion by bringing some topic into just such a state. I regret to say that, accordingly, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is poised to muddle the management of symptoms, and chronic disease risk at menopause. As I have indicated recently, and repeatedly over the years, I have enormous respect for the USPSTF, an influential panel of independent experts who generate strictly evidence-based guidelines for clinical preventive services, i.e., those medical practices dedicated to the prevention of morbidity and premature mortality. The group’s standards are high, consistent, and transparent, and their conclusions are influential on clinicians, payers, and the government for good reason: they are well informed and reliable. But they are not infallible. Applying very strict standards of evidence to the medical literature has a well-known liability attached to it: the potential conflation of absence of evidence with evidence of absence. The latter is when we know, decisively, that something does not work. The former- far more common, alas- is when the current state of evidence is insufficient to tell us for sure one way or the other. The Task Force is no stranger to the problem of absence of evidence. Many times over the years they have concluded, in effect, that they could not reach a conclusion. The customary language has been along the lines of: “evi...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news