The numbers needed to treat and harm (NNT, NNH) statistics: what they tell us and what they do not.

Chronic fatigue syndrome and the biopsychosocial model.

I completely concur with Dr Des Spence: Big Pharma is manipulating doctors and exploiting patients, and Big Medicine is neglecting its role to protect patients.1 I can remember, shortly after becoming a GP Principal in 1987, a drug representative trying to persuade us to prescribe evening primrose oil capsules for itching in eczema. The glossy presentation and neurolinguistic programming attemp...

Deriving number-needed-to-treat and number-needed-to-harm from the SAINT I trial results.

Deriving Number-Needed-to-Treat and Number-Needed-to-Harm From the Saint I Trial Results To the Editor: In their recent publication regarding interpretation of the Stroke-Acute Ischemic NXY Treatment (SAINT I) trial,1 Koziol and Feng use the definition, but not the derivation method, for number-needed-to-treat (NNT) and number-needed-to-harm (NNH) that was previously described.2 As a result the...

Algorithm for neuropathic pain treatment: an evidence based proposal.

New studies of the treatment of neuropathic pain have increased the need for an updated review of randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials to support an evidence based algorithm to treat neuropathic pain conditions. Available studies were identified using a MEDLINE and EMBASE search. One hundred and five studies were included. Numbers needed to treat (NNT) and numbers needed to harm ...

Number needed to treat (NNT); number needed to harm (NNH).

Show me the evidence: using number needed to treat.

This article reviews one of the basic tools of evidence-based medicine, the calculation and interpretation of Number Needed to Treat (NNT) and Number Needed to Harm (NNH). Especially appealing is the simplicity of extracting this information from journal articles that report binary outcomes, such as medication response or emergence of adverse events. On-line resources and calculators can help t...