Bandolier - On being little
Roman augurs never had it like this. They could tear the entrails out of a chicken and make of it what they liked, or perhaps what they were paid to make out of it. After all, taking the auspices was one thing, what happened was another, and if the two did not match someone else was to blame for offending the gods.
One of the classic problems with evidence is when there’s not much of it, and we have to tease out what it means. The trouble is we are not allowed to guess. We have to get it right. So this month we concentrate on looking at little amounts of evidence.
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Three meta-analyses, of treatments for impetigo, methylxanthines for COPD exacerbations, and trazodone for erectile dysfunction make the training ground. One confirms us in our beliefs, though it appals us that there is so little evidence for treatments used so often. One shows that guidelines can be wrong, and that a treatment probably does more harm than good. One teases us with suggestions of efficacy, but only in some, and then perhaps. And that is what it is often like, taking the auspices from too little information. We have, in the end, to make much from little.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Bandolier Ltd.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
