Evidence-based psychopharmacology 2. Appraising a systematic review: is risperidone better than conventional antipsychotics in the treatment of schizophrenia?
Systematic reviews are increasingly used to combine the results of several studies in order to define the treatment effect with a high degree of precision. However, reviews of this nature may lead to spurious results and should not be accepted uncritically. This article, the second in a series on evidence-based psychopharmacology, is intended to illustrate the process of critical appraisal of a systematic review. In this example, a systematic review of studies comparing risperidone with conventional antipsychotics is appraised. Interpretation of the results of the systematic review may be hampered by the way in which studies were selected.
Warner
J P
JP
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, St Charles Hospital, London, UK. j.warner@ic.ac.uk
D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018967:Risperidone / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000188:drug therapy; D000078202:Systematic Reviews as Topic
D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D018967:Risperidone