How to read critically a scientific paper
Authors:
Pavel Mohr 1,2; Cyril Höschl 1,2; Jan Volavka 3
Authors‘ workplace:
Psychiatrické centrum Praha
1; 3. lékařská fakulta, Univerzita Karlova Praha
2; New York University School of Medicine
3
Published in:
Čas. Lék. čes. 2012; 151: 476-479
Category:
Special Articles
Overview
Background.
Effort to follow the development in various fields of medicine is being hindered by enormous growth of information output. The vast amount of data makes it difficult to figure out what is really important. Psychiatrists and other physicians tend to read scientific papers superficially, relying excessively on abstracts. We addressed this problem by teaching critical appraisal of individual articles.
Methods.
We developed a 23-item appraisal instrument to assess various aspects of papers on psychopharmacology. The appraisal form was used to evaluate individual articles during a series of workshops with psychiatric trainees. The results were collected with an electronic voting system and subsequently discussed with experienced tutors who also provided key ratings.
Results.
The total of 58 trainees participated at three workshops, six publications were analyzed. Evaluation of the papers yielded heterogeneous results reflecting variations of the participants’ theoretical background as well as varied quality of the publications. We present detailed analysis of one paper as an illustrative example.
Conclusions.
Our experience showed that the discussion format and the voting system with immediate feedback stimulate active involvement of the participants. Administration of the structured appraisal instrument that can be easily adapted for other medical publications may enhance understanding and critical appraisal of scientific texts.
Key words:
medical information, publications, psychopharmacology, teaching.
Sources
1. Deshazo JP, t al. Publication rends n the medical informatics literature: 20 years of „Medical nformatics“ in eSH. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak 009; 9: 7.
2. Albayrak O, et al. Bibliometric assessment of publication output of child and adolescent psychiatric/psychological affiliations between 2005 and 2010 based on the databases PubMed and Scopus. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2012; 21: 327–337.
3. Pus PE. Vliv farmaceutického průmyslu na vzdělávání lékařů. Psychiatrie 2004; 8: 332.
4. Heres S, et al. Why olanzapine beats risperidone, risperidone beats quetiapine, and quetiapine beats olanzapine: an exploratory analysis of head-to-head comparison studies of second-generation antipsychotics. Am J Psychiatry 2006; 163: 185–194.
5. Kasper S, et al. Efficacy and safety of aripiprazole vs. haloperidol for long-term maintenance treatment following acute relapse of schizophrenia. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol 2003; 6: 325–337.
6. Giegling I, et al. Interaction of haloperidol plasma level and antipsychotic effect in early phases of acute psychosis treatment. J Psychiatr Res 2010; 44: 487–492.
7. Mohr P, et al. Teaching critical appraisal of articles on psychopharmacology. Acad Psychiatry 2012; 36: 114–117.
8. Chengappa KN, et al. Clozapine: its impact on aggressive behavior among patients in a state psychiatric hospital. Schizophr Res 2002; 53: 1–6.
9. Dose M, et al. Treating schizophrenia patients with antipsychotics in a naturalistic setting: a retrospective chart review. Psychiatrie 2008; 12: 197–200.
10. Jones PB, et al. Randomized Controlled Trial of the Effect on Quality of Life of Second- vs First-Generation Antipsychotic Drugs in Schizophrenia: Cost Utility of the Latest Antipsychotic Drugs in Schizophrenia Study (CUtLASS 1). Arch Gen Psychiatry 2006; 63: 1079-1087.
11. Kahn RS, et al. Effectiveness of antipsychotic drugs in first-episode schizophrenia and schizophreniform disorder: an open randomised clinical trial. Lancet 2008; 371(9618): 1085–1097.
Labels
Addictology Allergology and clinical immunology Angiology Audiology Clinical biochemistry Dermatology & STDs Paediatric gastroenterology Paediatric surgery Paediatric cardiology Paediatric neurology Paediatric ENT Paediatric psychiatry Paediatric rheumatology Diabetology Pharmacy Vascular surgery Pain managementArticle was published in
Journal of Czech Physicians
Most read in this issue
- Sexually transmitted infections and spermicides
- Present concept for management of severely injured patients in Trauma Centre Faculty Hospital Královské Vinohrady
- How to read critically a scientific paper
- Oxidative stress after anthracycline therapy in patients with solid tumors