Table 4

Articles concluding DS are Unsafe or Ineffective

Characteristics
N Unsafe/All DS articles (%)
Among Clinical or Cohort Trials
Among Editorials
Among Reviews
N Unsafe/TOTAL MAJOR ARTICLES

UNSAFE






     Most Pharmads
5/35 (14)
0/0 (0)
1/1 (100)
1/2 (50)
2/3 (67)*
     Middle Pharmads
16/142 (11)
1/30 (3)
0/15 (0)
0/2 (0)
1/47 (7)
     Fewest Pharmads
3/77 (4)
0/14 (0)
1/11 (9)
0/3 (0)
1/27 (4)






     CAM Journals
1/88 (1)
0
0
0
0/19 (0)

INEFFECTIVE
N Ineffective/All DS articles (%)



N Ineffective/TOTAL MAJOR ARTICLES

     Most Pharmads
12/35 (34)
0/0
1/2 (50)
0/2 (0)
1/4 (25)
     Middle Pharmads
35/142 (25)
8/31 (26)
5/15 (33)
1/2 (50)
14/47 (30)
     Fewest Pharmads
21/77 (27)
2/14 (14)
3/11 (27)
0/3 (0)
5/27 (19)






     CAM Journals
11/88 (13)
1/11 (9)
0/2 (0)
1/6 (17)
2/19 (11)

* General medical journals with the most pharmads published a significantly higher percentage of major articles concluding that DS were unsafe than the journals with middle or fewest pharmads or the CAM journals (P < 0.005).

The differences in rates of articles concluding that DS were ineffective among the different pharmad groups were not statistically significant.

Kemper and Hood BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2008 8:11   doi:10.1186/1472-6882-8-11