A study which appears in today's Journal of the American Medical Association tackles the tricky subject of the reliability of studies. Researchers at Tufts New England Medical Center and the University of Ionnina in Greece looked at about 100 frequently-cited clinical research studies appearing in JAMA, the New England Journal of Medicine and the Lancet. The researchers found that findings were later contradicted or called into question in about one-third of cases (32 percent).
That, of course, comes as no surprise to critics who have questioned the reliability and, in some cases, the integrity of research on medical topics. JAMA's editors commented on the finding in a statement, noting that, "a single study is not the final word, and that is an important message."
- see this story from the Associated Press