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Non-randomised studies of the effects of interventions are critical to many areas of healthcare evaluation, but their results may be biased. It is therefore important to understand and appraise their strengths and weaknesses. We developed ROBINS-I (“Risk Of Bias In Non-randomised Studies - of Interventions”), a new tool for evaluating risk of bias in estimates of the comparative effectiveness (harm or benefit) of interventions from studies that did not use randomisation to allocate units (individuals or clusters of individuals) to comparison groups. The tool will be particularly useful to those undertaking systematic reviews that include non-randomised studies.

The systematic review of the efficacy of treatment and factors associated with the treatment of bulimia nervosa (BN) is carried out on the basis of database survey. There is strong evidence found for the behavioral treatment of BN and for the harms related to it.

The evidences of treatment and associated risk factors of binge eating disorder (BED) are analyzed based on the studies of six major databases. The evidence for treatment and behavioral interventions was found to be moderate.

The risk and the treatment plan for anorexia were reviewed by the RTI International-University of North Carolina at their Evidence-based Practice Center (RTI-UNC EPC). The statistical evidence for the treatment and the associated harms is poor for this disorder.

The effects of the eating disorders like anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and binge eating disorder (BED) are analyzed. The factors associated with outcomes of AN like depression, Asperser's syndrome, and anxiety was more pronounced than BN and BED.

This study examines whether the mechanism through which a methadone maintenance treatment site offers seven treatment-related and support services is related to whether a patient receives such services. Mechanisms include the provision of services on-site, at another program site, or through formal or informal linkage arrangements. Analysis was conducted on a nationally representative sample of methadone treatment sites. Providing services on-site was found to be positively related to patient access to a majority of services, whereas, in general, offering services at another program site or through formal or informal linkages was not found to be effective. Not-for-profit or public ownership of treatment sites was also found to be positively related to patient access. Keywords: Methadone maintenance treatment; Access to services; Receipt of services; Treatment services; Support services

We systematically reviewed the research on patients' and prescribers' perceptions of, and self-reported behaviors prompted by, exposure to direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) (For ease of reading we use the term "advertising" to encompass advertising and promotional labeling. Broad use of this term does not imply endorsement by FDA) of prescription drugs that occurs in the context of a clinical encounter. This research offers an important perspective on the broader goal of incorporating patient and prescriber voices in decision-making. Outcomes included patient information seeking, medication adherence, patient requests for DTCA-promoted prescription drugs, prescribing behaviors, and perceptions of the patient–prescriber relationship and interactions. We searched PubMed and other databases from 1982–2017 and identified 38 studies meeting our study criteria. Of these, 24 studies used patient-reported outcomes and 18 used prescriber-reported outcomes (four used both). Studies suggested some potential benefits of exposure to DTCA, including patients' enhanced information-seeking, increased patient requests for appropriate prescriptions (when addressing potential underuse) and patients' perceptions of higher-quality interactions with prescribers. Most prescribers perceived a neutral influence on the quality of their clinical interactions with patients regarding DTCA. Harms included patients receiving prescriptions for drugs that were not appropriate for them or that the patients did not need, and the potential for DTCA to interfere with medication adherence in some populations, such as those with mental illness. The potential benefits of DTCA on the patient–provider encounter must be balanced with the potential for harms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]