Beware of conflicting interests

This is the seventh in a series of 34 blogs explaining 34 key concepts we need to be able to understand to think critically about treatment claims.

This blog discusses how people with an interest in promoting a treatment (in addition to wanting to help people), such as making money, may promote treatments by exaggerating benefits and ignoring potential harmful effects. Conversely, people may be opposed to a treatment for a range of reasons, such as cultural practices.

Expert opinion is not always right

This is the sixth in a series of 34 blogs explaining 34 key concepts we need to be able to understand to think critically about treatment claims.

This blog explains that doctors, researchers, patient organisations and other authorities often disagree about the effects of treatments. It explains why we should not rely on the opinions of experts or other authorities about the effects of treatments, unless they clearly base their opinions on the findings of systematic reviews of fair comparisons of treatments.

Newer is not necessarily better

This is the fifth in a series of 34 blogs explaining 34 key concepts we need to be able to understand to think critically about treatment claims.

This blog explains that new treatments are often assumed to be better simply because they are new or because they are more expensive. However, they are only very slightly likely to be better than other available treatments.

Defining “Risk”

“This treatment lowers your high risk of heart attack considerably”. Wait, what is “risk”? This post explains you a definition of risk that is useful to understand in health-related questions.