Summary
Contents
Subject index
The `effectiveness revolution' both in research and clinical practice, has tested available methods for health services research to the extreme. How far can observational methods, routine data and qualitative methods be used in health care evaluation? What cost and outcome measures are appropriate, and how should data be gathered? With the support of over two million pounds from the British Health Technology Assessment Research Programme, the research project for this Handbook has led to both a synthesis of all of the existing knowledge in these areas and an agenda for future debate and research. The chapters and their authors have been selected through a careful process of peer review and provide a coher
The Placebo Effect: Methodological Process and Implications of a Structured Review
The Placebo Effect: Methodological Process and Implications of a Structured Review
Summary
This chapter reports the processes involved in a review of the determinants of the placebo effect. In addition to the methodological considerations shared with other review subjects, the placebo effect presents particular challenges because it is such an imprecisely defined area. This chapter first considers the context of the review and three key issues of methodology designed specifically to deal with the imprecision of the topic: establishment of a conceptual framework; search, retrieval and screening in a potentially extensive literature; and the methods used in the analysis of the primary research papers. The evidence is then described, accompanied by the quality assessment, and the ...
- Loading...