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Records
A note on James Lind Library records included to illustrate dramatic effects of treatments
This record has been added to the James Lind Library because the editors judge it to be an account of a ‘dramatic effect’ of treatment, that is, an effect that can be inferred confidently without the need for formal comparative studies. The James Lind Library contains examples both of dramatic beneficial treatment effects (see, for example, Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus c. 2000 BCE, and Walker 1934), and of dramatic harmful treatment effects (see, for example, McBride 1961). Indeed, a treatment, sulphonamide drugs for example, can have a dramatic effect in some diseases, but modest or little effect in others (see Loudon 2002).
Sometimes, identifying dramatic – usually short-term - effects of treatments leaves little room for doubt (see Glasziou et al. 2007). More usually, it is difficult to judge whether a treatment has so marked an effect that measures to control biases (random allocation and blinding, for example) are really unnecessary. The editors of the James Lind Library welcome comments on their judgements about the records they have included as examples of dramatic effects of treatments.
References
Glasziou P, Chalmers I, Rawlins M, McCulloch P. When are randomised trials unnecessary? Picking signal from noise. BMJ 2007;334:349-351.
Loudon I (2002). The use of historical controls and concurrent controls to assess the effects of sulphonamides, 1936-1945. The James Lind Library (www.jameslindlibrary.org).