Use of tanezumab for patients with hip and knee osteoarthritis with reference to a randomised clinical trial by Berenbaum and colleagues

Publication spin, in the context of randomised clinical trials, is defined as ‘use of specific reporting strategies, from whatever motive, to highlight that the experimental treatment is beneficial, despite a statistically nonsignificant difference for the primary outcome, or to distract the reader from statistically nonsignificant results’ (p. 2059).1 In our view, a secondary but clinically important alternative type of publication spin is reliance on statistically significant findings without regard to potential clinical implications of the estimated effects. The American Statistical Association (ASA) has commented on this issue, stating a statistically significant effect does not inform its size or importance.2 A later editorial more explicitly states that conclusions not be based solely on statistical significance.3 We believe the recently published trial by Berenbaum and colleagues4 meets our secondary definition of publication spin and does not meet the recommendation endorsed by the ASA. Berenbaum and colleagues conducted a three-arm phase III randomised …