Citation

Keynejad R, Holt C, Rao T. BJPsych Bull 2015; 39(6): 315.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Royal College of Psychiatrists)

DOI

10.1192/pb.39.6.315

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Trainees seeking membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists must, through Paper B examinations, demonstrate understanding of critical review, statistical methods and evidence-based practice. This ensures that no psychiatrist progresses through training without an appreciation of how the findings of isolated studies, even those which are highly cited, should be interpreted and applied in clinical practice. The continuing requirement for critical appraisal skills was supported by a recent study of highly cited psychiatric research reporting effective treatments. Tajika et al's 10-year follow-up of 83 papers found that only 16 were replicated, and standardised mean differences had been overestimated by 132%. This is consistent with previous studies reporting a devaluation trend, whereby highly cited clinical research findings are contradicted or weakened over time, and relates to the ongoing problem that positive results are more likely to be published than negative ones...

Language: en