By Brian Hughes in The Science Bit.

 

An invited, non-peer-reviewed guest editorial in the BMJ has claimed that behavioural interventions for “complex conditions” (such as ME or CFS) should not be judged using the customary criteria — and that the relevant studies should not be evaluated as though they were proper randomised controlled trials — because, among other things, “double blinding is impossible.”

I don’t think this makes sense. Not least because one of the editorial’s co-authors had previously argued that standard RCTs were, in fact, essential for this purpose.

This is what he said back then:

“Randomised controlled trials provide the best and only reliable evidence on safety and effectiveness of any intervention in any condition”
— February 2011

I couldn’t have put it better myself.

In my view, we should indeed judge such studies by the best available standards. A lack of blinding, together with the use of self-report, is a massive fail in research methodology terms. Any suggestion that we now downgrade the importance of blinding should be dismissed for the self-serving goalpost manipulation that it is.

 

To read the rest of this story, click on the link below:

 

Link to BMJ Standards story