Systematic Reviews Published in the Cochrane Library January-March 2017.

The Cochrane Library of Systematic Reviews is now only published monthly online ( http://www.thecochranelibrary.com ).

Faster, higher, stronger? Evidence for formulation and efficacy for ibuprofen in acute pain.

A Cochrane review of ibuprofen in acute pain suggested that rapidly absorbed formulations of salts, or features to speed absorption, provided better analgesia than standard ibuprofen as the free acid. We examined several lines of evidence to investigate what benefit derived from fast-acting formulations. A systematic review of the kinetics of oral ibuprofen (30 studies, 1015 subjects) showed that median maximum plasma concentrations of fast-acting formulations occurred before 50 min (29-35 min for arginine, lysine, and sodium salts) compared with 90 min for standard formulations.

Evidence-based pain management and palliative care in issue four for 2004 of the Cochrane Library.

The Cochrane Library of Systematic Reviews is published quarterly. Issue four for 2004 of the library was published in October 2004. The Cochrane Library now contains 2170 complete reviews, 1500 protocols of reviews and 4918 one-page summaries of systematic reviews published in the general medical literature.

Evidence-based pain management and palliative care in issue three for 2004 of The Cochrane Library.

The Cochrane Library of Systematic Reviews is published quarterly. Issue three for 2004 of the library was published in July 2004. The Cochrane Library now contains 3559 complete reviews and protocols of reviews.

Evidence-based pain management and palliative care in issue one for 2004 of The Cochrane Library.

The Cochrane Library of Systematic Reviews is published quarterly. Issue one for 2004 of the library was published in February 2004. This issue contains 3,329 reviews and protocols of which 1,921 are fully published reviews.

Evidence-based pain management and palliative care in issues three and four for 2003 of The Cochrane Library.

The Cochrane Library of systematic reviews is published quarterly. Issue 3 for 2003 of the library was published in May 2003. That issue contains 3058 reviews of which 1754 are in full text.

Resources in The Cochrane Library: issue number 1, 2003.

The Cochrane Library of systematic reviews is published quarterly. Issue 1 for 2003 contains 2796 reviews of which 1598 are completed and in full text. Ten of those are directly relevant to pain management and palliative care.

Pain and palliative care in Issue Number 3, 2001 of The Cochrane Library.

A brief description of how an individual can access The Cochrane Library and navigate within it is provided. The National Library of Medicine medical subject heading (MeSH) terminology is described. Selected new reviews from a recent edition of The Cochrane Library are listed in an annotated bibliography together with a description of the current volume of material now available on the library.

The Cochrane Collaboration Pain, Palliative Care and Supportive Care Collaborative Review Group.

The Pain, Palliative and Supportive care group is one of 50 collaborative review groups that make up the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization with the task of preparing, maintaining and disseminating systematic reviews of the effects of healthcare. Cochrane reviews are published cumulatively four times a year on the Cochrane library (CD-ROM and Web-based), along with other useful material such as a register of some 300,000 randomized controlled trials. The group has identified some 20,000 randomized trials in pain and 1,200 in palliative care.

Pain and palliative care in the Cochrane Library: Issue Number 4 for 2002.

The Cochrane Library of systematic reviews is published quarterly. Issue 4 for 2002 contains 2655 reviews of which 1519 are completed and in full text. Nine of those are directly relevant to pain management and palliative care.

Pain and palliative care in The Cochrane Library; Issue number 4, 2001.

The Cochrane Library of systematic reviews is published quarterly. Nine of the 62 new reviews published in Issue 4 for 2001 in February 2002 are relevant to pain and palliative care. Annotated bibliographies for those nine reviews are provided.

Pain and palliative care in The Cochrane Library: Issue Number 3 for 2002.

The Cochrane Library of systematic reviews is published quarterly. Six of the 62 new reviews published in Issue 4 for 2001 in February 2002 are relevant to pain and palliative care. Annotated bibliographies for those nine reviews are provided.

Resources in The Cochrane Library: Issue number 2, 2002.

Reviews and protocols relevant to pain management and palliative care that appeared in Issue 2 for 2002 of The Cochrane Library are listed.

Pooling data for number needed to treat: no problems for apples.

Objective: To consider the problem of the calculation of number needed to treat (NNT) derived from risk difference, odds ratio, and raw pooled events shown to give different results using data from a review of nursing interventions for smoking cessation.

Discussion: A review of nursing interventions for smoking cessation from the Cochrane Library provided different values for NNT depending on how NNTs were calculated. The Cochrane review was evaluated for clinical heterogeneity using L'Abbé plot and subsequent analysis by secondary and primary care settings.