How Cochrane Keeps the Addiction Science in Check

Science isn’t infallible. Humans make mistakes even in this highly sophisticated method of understanding the world around us. Thanks God, addiction researchers get a chance to correct their error. If they publish a big error, the publication may be withdrawn. In smaller cases, the publisher issues a correction. It is interesting to see how such a correction has been issued following publication of our Cochrane systematic review of literature which. Probably this helped to keep the addiction science in check. See it for yourself below.

August 2011: “Alcohol-related brief intervention in patients treated for opiate or cocaine dependence: a randomized controlled study”

Before our review included this study, the authors reported the following figures in tables 3 and 7.

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November 2011: “Psychosocial interventions to reduce alcohol consumption in concurrent problem alcohol and illicit drug users: a Cochrane review”

Our review was published in November 2011 and re-stated the findings of the above study as: higher rates of decreased alcohol use at three months (risk ratio (RR) 0.32; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.19 to 0.54) and nine months (RR 0.16; 95% CI 0.08 to 0.33) in the treatment as usual group– See more at: http://summaries.cochrane.org/CD009269/ADDICTN_which-talking-therapies-counselling-work-for-drug-users-with-alcohol-problems#sthash.RcVZGdQA.dpuf

August 2013 “Correction: Alcohol-related brief intervention in patients treated for opiate or cocaine dependence: a randomized controlled study”

After the publication of our review, the authors corrected their figures in tables 1 and 5. The care-as-usual treatment for the control group was no longer stronger than the experimental intervention, the “alcohol-related brief intervention.”

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A note on causality in science

Because causal relationships are hard to prove (i.e. cause -> effect), majority of scientific publications rely on correlations. An example of a correlation is a relationship between shorter living expectancy and male gender. Men die younger than women. Although there are many plausible explanations, we cannot pinpoint a single cause. Similarly, if an article gets corrected following a review in a major synthesis of scientific evidence – the Cochrane review – it may be a pure coincidence or it may be a consequence of the review.

Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention and Policy is an open-access peer-reviewed online journal that encompasses all aspects of research concerning substance abuse, with a focus on policy issues. Text taken from www.substanceabusepolicy.com

Cochrane Collaboration hosts the largest database of systematic reviews to inform healthcare decisions. Cochrane reviews are the jaguars of medical evidence synthesis. Cochrane is a global independent network of health practitioners, researchers, patient advocates and others, responding to the challenge of making the vast amounts of evidence generated through research useful for informing decisions about health. Cochrane is a not-for-profit organisation with collaborators from over 120 countries working together to produce credible, accessible health information that is free from commercial sponsorship and other conflicts of interest. Text taken from www.cochrane.org