Featured review: Control interventions in randomized trials among people with mental health disorders

New Cochrane Review:  Control interventions in randomised trials for people with a mental health disorderKEY MESSAGESResearchers use many different control interventions in randomized trials on treatments for patients with mental health disorders, but there is little consensus on how to report and adequately design these controls. This practice has widespread consequences for the evidence base underpinning psychiatric treatmentsThe choice, design and reporting of a control intervention is just as important as the experimental treatment in a randomized trial with psychiatric patients. This is not reflected in most randomized trials with mental health patients, as control interventions are often poorly reported upon and lack methodological rigorSome psychiatric treatments may be recommended based on just having compared the treatment with a waitlist or no-treatment control in a randomized trial, which may give a misleading picture of how effective the treatment isErlend Faltinsen, lead author,   commented, "There is a need to develop methodological guidelines on how to design and report upon control interventions in randomized trials on psychiatric treatments, as trialists working in the field of mental health do not have a solid evidence-based framework to draw from on this issue. "Why was this review conducted?The review investigates the beneficial and harmful effects between different control interventions in randomized trials with mental health patients. We wanted to inve...
Source: Cochrane News and Events - Category: Information Technology Authors: Source Type: news