What is a multiple treatments meta-analysis?
Standard meta-analyses are an effective tool in evidence-based medicine, but one of their main drawbacks is that they can compare only two alternative treatments at a time. Moreover, if no trials exist which directly compare two interventions, it is not possible to estimate their relative efficacy. Multiple treatments meta-analyses use a meta-analytical technique that allows the incorporation of evidence from both direct and indirect comparisons from a network of trials of different interventions to estimate summary treatment effects as comprehensively and precisely as possible.
Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Section of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, University of Verona, Italy. andrea.cipriani@univr.it
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Cipriani
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Barbui
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Rizzo
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Salanti
D003131:Combined Modality Therapy / Q000379:methods; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000379:methods*; D012107:Research Design