The BMJ recently published
a review of interventions for Long Covid that–surprise!–recommended CBT and a rehabilitation program as treatments. The review is full of holes. I have focused on one in particular. The review relies for its rehabilitation recommendation on
an earlier BMJ study–even though that study
has itself already been corrected for having misrepresented its findings in key sections. This morning, I sent the following letter to Dr Kamran Abbasi, editor-in-chief of
The BMJ:
Dear Dr Abbasi—
A recent paper in
The BMJ,
Interventions for the management of long covid (post-covid condition): living systematic review, from Zeraatkar et al,drew a crucial conclusion from a trial whose findings were seriously misrepresented. That trial report, also published by
The BMJ, has already been corrected. The review needs a similar correction.
Zeraatkar et al recommended a mental and physical health rehabilitation program and cognitive behavior therapy as reasonable interventions for people suffering from the prolonged symptoms that characterize Long Covid. Each recommendation was based on a single clinical trial.
The basis for the first recommendation was
Clinical effectiveness of an online supervised group physical and mental health rehabilitation programme for adults with post-covid-19 condition (REGAIN study): multicentre randomised controlled trial, from McGregor et al. The paper was published by
The BMJ in February of this year and then corrected in May. The initial version failed to note in major sections—such as the conclusion of the abstract—that the sample included only patients who had been hospitalized for acute Covid-19. Given the significant differences between Long Covid patients who have and have not been hospitalized, the trial findings cannot automatically be extrapolated to everyone with prolonged symptoms. The corrected version now makes that clear..................................
