EBP Exchange - UMB School of Social Work

This is not a brand new review (it was posted in mid 2007) but for those interested in this topic and those who have not read Campbell reviews, this is a valuable resource to know about, http://www.sfi.dk/sw53242.asp.  Another interesting and recent review you will find on the home page for Campbell is a late 2007 review on CBT in residential care programs with a finding that these are effective in reducing recidivism. Some subjects are not yet reviewable–as you will see if your read the review about treatment foster care because there is simply not enough high quality research. That is the responbility of all of us–researchers, program managers and providers, and funders to correct!  If we can shoot down our own spy sattelites, we can complete more randomized clinical trials!

 These reviews are considered state-of-the-art with regard to research syntheses, although they are not without critics. John Eckenrode, from Cornell, recently prepared a detailed response to a review of home-visiting programs that contained a long list of what are clear errors–a table full of them.  His email to me about that is worth quoting and reading, “I am attaching the Cochrane reviews and our latest draft of our response as well as a table of errors we found.  Hope this is helpful.  It is an instance that helps remind us that Cochrane/Campbell reviews, while very valuable, are not infallible and should be combined with other sources of information when making decisions about the evidence.”