Systematic Reviews
When the risk/benefit profile of a drug is uncertain, it is possible to explore the published literature and obtain further information by performing a systematic review.
This information will offer a comprehensive overview of the drug and can be used to make evidence based decisions. The systematic methods reduce the bias associated with that of general reviews and therefore provide reliable results. Often studies are too small to provide a good picture of the safety profile of a drug, but by compiling evidence from all relevant studies, it may be possible to obtain a clearer picture. First the literature is extensively searched, then the studies are assessed for eligibility and quality, the relevant data is extracted and then the results are synthesised and a meta-analysis is performed if appropriate.