EBM NOTEBOOK
Evidence in context: one person’s poison is another’s acceptable risk
McMaster University; Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Seeing a patient who might be having an adverse effect of a medication may lead to a clash of perspectives. For example, from the viewpoint of a cardiologist caring for someone with an acute coronary syndrome, it is all too easy to blame the internist or rheumatologist who prescribed a cyclo-oxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor for a patient’s arthritis. This is yet another example of "practice variation," or slow knowledge translation. However, such a judgement ignores the complexity of the evidence that putatively links COX-2 inhibitors to heart disease. To be sure, there is evidence that COX-2 inhibitors can increase risk of cardiovascular (CV) disease, but what may be overlooked is that the extent of such risk varies substantively among patients, depending on the drug, dose, dosing frequency, duration, and outcome definition. Furthermore, the balance of benefits and risks for patients depends on their unique clinical states and circumstances,1 the success or
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
