Concerns Regarding Strength of Conclusions in Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Neuroradiological Abnormalities in First-Episode Psychosis

Ref ID 1015
First Author M. Forbes
Journal JAMA PSYCHIATRY
Year Of Publishing 2024
URL https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abstract/2811490
Keywords • Mental health
• Expertise
• Diagnostic
Problem(s) • Failure to define clinically meaningful outcomes
Article Type Editorial
Article Subtype Comment/letter
First Author Country Australia
Aim A letter to the editor to report concerns regarding the strength of conclusions in a systematic review and meta-analysis published in 2023 on neuroradiological abnormalities in first-episode psychosis.
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings From a letter to the editor to report concerns regarding the strength of conclusions in a systematic review and meta-analysis published in 2023 on neuroradiological abnormalities in first-episode psychosis. The letter's authors believe that the systematic review has overestimated the usefulness of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) due to their definition of “clinically relevant.” The authors point out that the definition of "clinically relevant" may have changed over the years covered by the review, and that may affect radiologist reports and referral rates, and thus, prevalence estimates. Furthermore, the most common clinically relevant abnormality reported is prevalence of white matter abnormalities of 0.9% but this estimate comes mainly from 2 studies, neither of which support this evidence.
Number of systematic reviews included 1
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 1
Treatment impacted No
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted Not Applicable
Interpretation impacted description