Compared with what? An analysis of control-group types in Cochrane and Campbell reviews of psychosocial treatment efficacy with substance use disorders

Ref ID 742
First Author P.Karlsson
Journal ADDICTION
Year Of Publishing 2015
URL https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25393504/
Keywords • External validity
• Cochrane
• Campbell
• Mental health
• Social care
Problem(s) • Ignores setting or context of included studies which limits review applicability
Article Type Empirical
Article Subtype Cross-sectional survey/Methodological systematic review
First Author Country Sweden
Aim To assess how the distinction between different control-group designs has been handled by the Cochrane and the Campbell Collaborations in their systematic reviews of psychosocial treatments of substance abuse disorders published up to 2013.
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings From 8 included Cochrane and Campbell reviews of psychosocial treatments for substance use disorders published up to 2013. Reviews covered studies involving widely different control conditions. Overall, little attention was paid to the use of different control groups (e.g. head-to-head comparisons versus untreated controls) and what this implies when interpreting effect sizes. Seven of eight reviews did not provide a rationale for the choice of comparison conditions.
Number of systematic reviews included 8
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 8
Treatment impacted No
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted Not Applicable
Interpretation impacted description