Some medical researchers and commentators on tests of medical treatments recognized more than two centuries ago that conclusions about the effects of treatments should be based on adequate numbers of people. From the middle of the 19th century onwards, the importance of the ‘law of large numbers’ became acknowledged increasingly within medical research. In 1840, for example, Jules Gavarret note...

BACKGROUND As it is uncertain whether psychological treatments for depressive symptoms are effective in elderly inpatients with significant medical comorbidity, we aimed to assess the treatment effectiveness not only on depressive symptoms but also on somatic symptoms in these inpatients. METHODS We performed a meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies assessing the effects of psychologi...

The purpose of this study was to examine factors that contribute to adverse incidents by creating a model that included patient characteristics, clinical conditions, nursing unit context of care variables, medical treatments, pharmaceutical treatments, and nursing treatments. Data were abstracted from electronic, administrative, and clinical data repositories. The sample included older adults h...

BACKGROUND Interest in ethnomedicine has grown in the last decades, with much research focusing on how local medicinal knowledge can contribute to Western medicine. Researchers have emphasized the divide between practices used by local medical practitioners and Western doctors. However, researchers have also suggested that merging concepts and practices from local medicinal knowledge and Wester...

OBJECTIVES Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a controversial illness, with apparent disagreements between medical authorities and patient support organisations regarding safe and effective treatments. The aim of this study was to measure the extent of different views regarding treatments, comparing patient support organisations and medical authorities in the UK. METHODS Two independent raters...