Psychological and psychosocial interventions for treatment-resistant schizophrenia: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.

Background: Many patients with schizophrenia have symptoms that do not respond to antipsychotics. This condition is called treatment-resistant schizophrenia and has not received specific attention as opposed to general schizophrenia. Psychological and psychosocial interventions as an add-on treatment to pharmacotherapy could be useful, but their role and comparative efficacy to each other and to standard care in this population are not known.

Sharing information across patient subgroups to draw conclusions from sparse treatment networks.

Network meta-analysis (NMA) usually provides estimates of the relative effects with the highest possible precision. However, sparse networks with few available studies and limited direct evidence can arise, threatening the robustness and reliability of NMA estimates. In these cases, the limited amount of available information can hamper the formal evaluation of the underlying NMA assumptions of transitivity and consistency.

Estimating individualized treatment effects using an individual participant data meta-analysis.

Background: One key aspect of personalized medicine is to identify individuals who benefit from an intervention. Some approaches have been developed to estimate individualized treatment effects (ITE) with a single randomized control trial (RCT) or observational data, but they are often underpowered for the ITE estimation. Using individual participant data meta-analyses (IPD-MA) might solve this problem.

Synthesis methods used to combine observational studies and randomised trials in published meta-analyses.

Background: This study examined the synthesis methods used in meta-analyses pooling data from observational studies (OSs) and randomised controlled trials (RCTs) from various medical disciplines.

Methods: We searched Medline via PubMed to identify reports of systematic reviews of interventions, including and pooling data from RCTs and OSs published in 110 high-impact factor general and specialised journals between 2015 and 2019. Screening and data extraction were performed in duplicate.

No evidence of important difference in summary treatment effects between COVID-19 preprints and peer-reviewed publications: a meta-epidemiological study.

Objectives: Preprints became a major source of research communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to evaluate whether summary treatment effect estimates differ between preprint and peer-reviewed journal trials.

Study Design And Setting: A meta-epidemiological study.

Interleukin-6 blocking agents for treating COVID-19: a living systematic review.

Background: It has been reported that people with COVID-19 and pre-existing autoantibodies against type I interferons are likely to develop an inflammatory cytokine storm responsible for severe respiratory symptoms. Since interleukin 6 (IL-6) is one of the cytokines released during this inflammatory process, IL-6 blocking agents have been used for treating people with severe COVID-19.

Objectives: To update the evidence on the effectiveness and safety of IL-6 blocking agents compared to standard care alone or to a placebo for people with COVID-19.

Empirical evaluation of the methods used in systematic reviews including observational studies and randomized trials.

Objectives: To examine the methodological characteristics of systematic reviews and meta-analyses including observational studies (OSs) and randomized controlled trials (RCTs), in various medical disciplines.

Study Design And Setting: We searched Medline via PubMed to identify systematic reviews of interventions including RCTs and OSs published in 110 journals from 2015 to 2019. We extracted in duplicate general and methodological characteristics of the systematic review.

metaCOVID: A web-application for living meta-analyses of COVID-19 trials.

Outputs from living evidence syntheses projects have been used widely during the pandemic by guideline developers to form evidence-based recommendations. However, the needs of different stakeholders cannot be accommodated by solely providing pre-defined non amendable numerical summaries. Stakeholders also need to understand the data and perform their own exploratory analyses.

Heterogeneity of design features in studies included in systematic reviews with meta-analysis of cognitive outcomes in children born very preterm.

Background: Meta-analyses of the voluminous scientific literature on the impact of very preterm (VPT, <32 weeks' gestation) birth on cognition find a marked deficit in intelligence quotient (IQ) among children born VPT relative to term-born peers, but with unexplained between-study heterogeneity in effect size.

Objectives: To conduct an umbrella review to describe the design and methodology of primary studies and to assess whether methodological heterogeneity affects the results of meta-analyses.

Data Sources: Primary studies from five systematic reviews with meta-analysis on VPT birth and childhood IQ.

Comparative efficacy, cognitive effects and acceptability of electroconvulsive therapies for the treatment of depression: protocol for a systematic review and network meta-analysis.

Introduction: There have been important advances in the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to treat major depressive episodes. These include variations to the type of stimulus the brain regions stimulated, and the stimulus parameters (eg, stimulus duration/pulse width). Our aim is to investigate ECT types using a network meta-analysis (NMA) approach and report on comparative treatment efficacy, cognitive side effects and acceptability.

Efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines.

Background: Different forms of vaccines have been developed to prevent the SARS-CoV-2 virus and subsequent COVID-19 disease. Several are in widespread use globally.  OBJECTIVES: To assess the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines (as a full primary vaccination series or a booster dose) against SARS-CoV-2.

The response of subgroups of patients with schizophrenia to different antipsychotic drugs: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: As comparatively few trials in subgroups of patients with schizophrenia have been done, clinicians need to know whether they can rely on the results of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in the general population of patients with schizophrenia. We aimed to compare the efficacy and side-effects of antipsychotic drugs in different subgroups.

Methods: In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched reference lists of previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses, the Cochrane Schizophrenia Group's Study-Based Register (from database inception to April 27, 2020), and PubMed (from April 1, 2020 to June 14, 2021).

Network meta-analysis of rare events using penalized likelihood regression.

Network meta-analysis (NMA) of rare events has attracted little attention in the literature. Until recently, networks of interventions with rare events were analyzed using the inverse-variance NMA approach. However, when events are rare the normal approximations made by this model can be poor and effect estimates are potentially biased.

Interleukin-1 blocking agents for treating COVID-19.

Background: Interleukin-1 (IL-1) blocking agents have been used for treating severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), on the premise that their immunomodulatory effect might be beneficial in people with COVID-19.

Objectives: To assess the effects of IL-1 blocking agents compared with standard care alone or with placebo on effectiveness and safety outcomes in people with COVID-19. We will update this assessment regularly.

The challenges of heterogeneity in gestational age and birthweight inclusion criteria for research synthesis on very preterm birth and childhood cognition: An umbrella review and meta-regression analysis.

Background: Meta-analyses of studies on very preterm (VPT) birth and childhood cognition select primary studies using gestational age inclusion criteria only, while others also include birthweight criteria. The consequences of this choice are unknown.

Objective: The objective of this study was to describe the gestational age (GA) and birthweight (BW) criteria used in studies of VPT birth and cognition and to investigate whether meta-analysis results differ based on these criteria.

Do reporting guidelines have an impact? Empirical assessment of changes in reporting before and after the PRISMA extension statement for network meta-analysis.

Background: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) extension statement for network meta-analysis (NMA) published in 2015 promotes comprehensive reporting in published systematic reviews with NMA. PRISMA-NMA includes 32 items: 27 core items as indicated in the 2009 PRISMA Statement and five items specific to the reporting of NMAs. Although NMA reporting is improving, it is unclear whether PRISMA-NMA has accelerated this improvement.