Interpreting the evidence

Evidence based medicine is the holy grail of medical practice—well, that is what some of us think. Remember, however, the dangers of meta-analysis,1 and even “quality sources” must be treated with some suspicion. Dark forces such as publication bias, pharmaceutical vested interest, incomplete search databases, and publication fraud are at work. Remember the first rule of medicine: “Do no harm.”2

Although the quality of the data in this review is good, it is important to be conscious of …