Evidence based or evidence biased!

[Evidence-based versus evidence-biased medicine].

Due to a burden of multiple chronic diseases, older patients are the greatest consumers of healthcare resources. However, randomized clinical trials (RCT) have excluded most older patients for many reasons, ranging from comorbidities to disability or cognitive impairment. Systematic reviews demonstrate that such stringent exclusion criteria, frequently poorly justified, are still adopted by ong...

Evidence-based or Biased? The Quality of Published Reviews of Evidence-based Practices

Objective: To assess methods used to identify, analyze, and synthesize results of empirical research on intervention effects, and determine whether published reviews are vulnerable to various sources and types of bias. Methods: Study 1 examined the methods, sources, and conclusions of 37 published reviews of research on effects of a model program. Study 2 compared findings of one published tria...

The American Heart Association advisory on n-6 fatty acids: evidence based or biased evidence?

The essentiality of the n-6 fatty acid, linoleic acid, was established about 80 years ago; the essentiality of the n-3 analogue, a-linolenic acid, became accepted rather later. The intakes of these fatty acids necessary to avoid deficiency are quite low (estimated to be 1 and 0·2 % of energy intake, respectively, corresponding to intakes in adults of about 2 and 0·4 g/d), and all diets should o...

Empirically Supported Treatments in Psychotherapy: Towards an Evidence-Based or Evidence-Biased Psychology in Clinical Settings?

THE FIELD OF RESEARCH AND PRACTICE IN PSYCHOTHERAPY HAS BEEN DEEPLY INFLUENCED BY TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES: the empirically supported treatments (ESTs) movement, linked with the evidence-based medicine (EBM) perspective and the "Common Factors" approach, typically connected with the "Dodo Bird Verdict". About the first perspective, since 1998 a list of ESTs has been established in mental health...

Evidence based policy or policy based evidence?