Many study results fail to hold up

[question everything]

Los Angeles Daily News

Many study results fail to hold up
By Associated Press

Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - CHICAGO -- Here's some medical news you can trust: A new study confirms that what doctors once said was good for you often turns out to be bad -- or at least not as great as initially thought.

The report is a review of major studies published in three influential medical journals between 1990 and 2003, including 45 highly publicized studies that initially claimed a drug or other treatment worked.

Subsequent research contradicted results of seven studies -- 16 percent -- and reported weaker results for seven others, an additional 16 percent. That means nearly one-third of the original results did not hold up, according to the study in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.

(snip)

Experts say the study is a reminder to doctors and patients that they should not put too much stock in a single study and understand that treatments often become obsolete with medical advances.

(snip)

Ioannidis' study examined research in the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet and JAMA.

http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2962242,00.html#

[LunaC]

1. Whenever I hear about the conclusions of a new study

My first question is "Who paid for it?"

[Another Bill C.]

2. Maybe this study is wrong, too.

"Ioannidis acknowledged an important but not very reassuring caveat: 'There's no proof that the subsequent studies ... were necessarily correct.'"

[thinkingwoman]

3. so true, like the new phones and driving study

Everybody in MSM is blathering endless about the new cell phones while driving study that "allegedly" shows that talking on the phone is dangerous even when using a headset because "just the act of having a conversation is too distracting."

Puh-leeeeeeeeeeeze. Drivers have been having conversations while driving since the Model T. What a bunch of absolute hooey.

When are they going to do a study showing how many "accidents" are caused by people failing to stop at stop signs and obey traffic signals.