1-8 More is not necessarily better

Increasing the dose or amount of a treatment (e.g. how many vitamin pills you take) often increases harms without increasing beneficial effects.

If a treatment is believed to be beneficial, do not assume that more of it is better.

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Ebm@school – a curriculum of critical health literacy for secondary school students

A curriculum based on the concept of evidence-based medicine, which consists of six modules.

| 0 Comments | Evaluated

McMaster Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Workshop Resources – Therapy module

This is the therapy module resources provided to the attendees at the McMaster Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Workshop.

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McMaster Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Workshop Resources – Systematic review module

The Systematic review module resources provided to the attendees at the McMaster Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Workshop.

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Bohemian Polypharmacy

James McCormack recruits help from Queen to warn of the dangers of ‘Bohemian Polypharmacy’ in music.

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More is less: an investigation of unnecessary testing

This is a US radio production about unnecessary testing and the associated harm to patients and costs to the health system.

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Surgery for the treatment of psychiatric illness: the need to test untested theories

Simon Wessely describes the untested theory of autointoxication, which arose in the 1890s and caused substantial harm to patients.

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3 – More is not necessarily better

In this Chapter: Introduction (this page) Intensive treatments for breast cancer Mutilating surgery Bone marrow transplantation Dare to think about […]

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1 – New, but is it better?

In this Chapter: Introduction (this page) Thalidomide Vioxx Avandia Mechanical heart valves Herceptin References (Section 1) Key points Testing new […]

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Mutilating surgery

Until the middle of the 20th century, surgery was the main treatment for breast cancer. This was based on the […]

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The classical (Halstead) radical mastectomy

The radical mastectomy, devised in the late 19th century by William Halsted, was the most commonly performed operation for breast […]

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Drastic treatment is not always the best

‘It is very easy for those of us treating cancer to imagine that better results are due to a more […]

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Dare to think about doing less

So, more is not always better – and this message remains important. Today, in women with metastatic (widespread) breast cancer, […]

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Intensive treatments for breast cancer

The therapies advocated for breast cancer – so often in the news – provide some especially valuable lessons about the […]

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No wonder she was confused

In January 2004, a hysterectomy patient wrote this letter to The Lancet: ‘In 1986 I had a hysterectomy because of […]

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GET-IT Jargon Buster

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GET-IT provides plain language definitions of health research terms