Edinburgh Napier University

  Dear Editor

We disagree with the Cochrane Schizophrenia Group’s (CSzG) self-assessment that the problems we identified (Hutton, Wood, Taylor, Irving & Morrison, 2014) in their reviews of popular antipsychotics for schizophrenia are not serious. We encourage people to read the paper (Hutton et al., 2012) where we document the problems in great detail and their likely impact on estimates of efficacy. We have not examined their impact on estimates of adverse effects, but we invite readers to do so.

We reject Professor Adams’ claim that the CSzG was not forewarned that there were serious problems with their review of cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis (Jones, Hacker, Cormac, Meaden, & Irving, 2012). In a meeting with the CSzG Editors in 2012, one of us (Paul Hutton) called for both it and their review of risperidone (Rattehalli, Jayaram, & Smith, 2010) to be retracted, fixed and then re-issued. Despite assurances that our concerns would be followed up, we have received no correspondence since then. Both these reviews contain multiple errors which greatly undermine their negative conclusions, yet both have been allowed to continue to influence public policy and debate.

As discussed at the 2012 meeting, we believe the CSzG system for documenting and responding to constructive criticism and feedback is neither transparent nor effective. Until there is evidence of improved responsiveness, we encourage readers to submit their critical feedback to independent and peer-reviewed journals, as we have done.

References

Hutton, P., Morrison, A.P., Yung, A.R., Taylor, P.J., French, P., & Dunn, G. (2012). Effects of drop-out on efficacy estimates in five Cochrane reviews of popular antipsychotics for schizophrenia.
Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 126,1–11.

Hutton, P., Wood, L., Taylor, P.J., Irving, K., & Morrison, A.P. (2014). Cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis: Rationale and protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychosis, 6, 220–230.

Jones, C., Hacker, D., Cormac, I., Meaden, A., & Irving, C.B. (2012). Cognitive behaviour therapy versus other psychosocial treatments for schizophrenia. Cochrane Database Syst Rev., 4, CD008712.

Rattehalli R.D., Jayaram M.B., Smith M. (2010). Risperidone versus placebo for schizophrenia. Cochrane Database Syst Rev., CD006918.

Yours sincerely
Paul Hutton
Peter J. Taylor
Anthony P. Morrison