[Comorbidity in medical guidelines: comparison of the current state, epidemiologic models and expert opinion].

Introduction: Medical guidelines focusing on monomorbidities can be associated with adverse events in multimorbid patients. This study investigates how comorbidities are actually particularised in a set of German guidelines. In addition, it evaluates whether two epidemiologic approaches (disease combinations or clusters of comorbidities) can be used to systematically integrate multimorbidity in guideline development.

[Early detection of prostate cancer: harm verified, benefit not verifiable].

The results of randomized studies on the early detection of prostate cancer and those of a systematic Cochrane review are compiled and interpreted. Some fundamental and inherent weaknesses of screening studies are pointed out and discussed. The meta-analysis of studies involving a total of 321,594 participants shows no reduction in prostate cancer mortality or all-cause mortality, but describes disadvantages such as unnecessary biopsies, overdiagnosis, and overtreatment.