Cochrane Db Syst Rev
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Low-back pain is a costly illness for which spinal manipulative therapy is commonly recommended. Previous systematic reviews and practice guidelines have reached discordant results on the effectiveness of this therapy for low-back pain. ⋯ There is no evidence that spinal manipulative therapy is superior to other standard treatments for patients with acute or chronic low-back pain.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2004
Review Meta AnalysisHyperbaric oxygen therapy for the adjunctive treatment of traumatic brain injury.
Traumatic brain injury is common and presents a health problem with significant effect on quality of life. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) has been suggested to improve oxygen supply to the injured brain and, therefore, to reduce the volume of brain that will ultimately perish. It is postulated that the addition of HBOT to the standard intensive care regimen may result in a reduction in patient death and disability as a result of these additional brain-preserving effects. ⋯ In people with traumatic brain injury, the addition of HBOT significantly reduced the risk of death but not of favourable clinical outcome. The routine application of HBOT to these patients cannot be justified from this review. In view of the modest number of patients, methodological shortcomings and poor reporting, this result should be interpreted cautiously, and an appropriately powered trial of high methodological rigour is justified to define those patients (if any) who can be expected to derive most benefit from HBOT.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2004
Review Meta AnalysisParent-training programmes for improving maternal psychosocial health.
Mental health problems are common and there is evidence to suggest that the origins of such problems lie in infancy and childhood. In particular, there is evidence from a range of studies to suggest that maternal psychosocial health can have a significant effect on the mother-infant relationship, and that this in turn can have consequences for both the short and long-term psychological health of the child. The use of parenting programmes is increasing in the UK and elsewhere and evidence of their effectiveness in improving outcomes for children has been provided. Evidence is now required of their effectiveness in improving outcomes for mothers. ⋯ It is suggested that parenting programmes can make a significant contribution to the short-term psychosocial health of mothers. However, there is currently a paucity of evidence concerning whether these results are maintained over time, and the limited follow-up data which are available show equivocal results. This points to the need for further evidence concerning the long-term effectiveness of parenting programmes on maternal mental health. Whilst the results of this review are positive overall, some studies showed no effect. Further research is needed to assess which factors contribute to successful outcomes in these programmes with particular attention being paid to the quality of delivery.These results suggest that parenting programmes have a potential role to play in the promotion of mental health.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2004
Review Meta AnalysisAntioxidant supplements for preventing gastrointestinal cancers.
Oxidative stress may cause gastrointestinal cancers. The evidence on whether antioxidant supplements are effective in preventing gastrointestinal cancers is contradictory. ⋯ We could not find evidence that antioxidant supplements prevent gastrointestinal cancers. On the contrary, they seem to increase overall mortality. The potential cancer preventive effect of selenium should be studied in adequately conducted randomised trials.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2004
Review Meta AnalysisProlonged versus short course of indomethacin for the treatment of patent ductus arteriosus in preterm infants.
Indomethacin is a prostaglandin inhibitor used to treat patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) in preterm infants. Although indomethacin produces ductal closure in the majority of cases, it is ineffective in up to 40% of patients. Furthermore, the ductus will re-open in up to 35% of infants who initially respond to the drug. A more prolonged course of indomethacin has been studied regarding the potential to achieve higher rates of ductal closure. ⋯ There is a paucity of data on optimal duration of indomethacin therapy for the treatment of PDA, in particular for ELBW premature infants. Future randomized clinical trials should include this high risk population and investigate the premature infants. Future randomized clinical trials should include this high risk population and investigate the possibility of tailoring duration of therapy (prolonged versus short) to individual response in terms of echocardiographic findings and/or prostaglandin levels, focusing on clinically significant outcomes and potential complications associated with either strategy. In addition, factors which may influence treatment effect need to be taken into account when designing such studies.