Do active placebo controls protect against bias from unblinding - and under what circumstances? And how do researchers develop active placebo controls? For Q1, go to the end. For Q2, see our new paper: www.jclinepi.com/article/S089... #ActivePlacebo #Blinding #Unblinding #Placebo 1/9

Happy to have defended my PhD successfully last week. If you want to read what my coauthors and I found out about active placebo controls and unblinding, the thesis is available here: portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/files/308011... I hope to explore further in my upcoming postdoc.

epdf->pdf in the url

Looking forward to participating in this hybrid seminar and sharing study findings and reflections on blinding, unblinking and active placebo controls in randomised drug trials, on 31 August in Slagelse and on Zoom. #Blinding #Unblinding #Placebo #ActivePlacebo

Thomas Wakley, the original editor of @thelancet.com was indeed no friend of Dr John Snow. In happier news, the journal published a 'corrected' obituary in 2013: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan... We're glad you had a refreshing visit to the John Snow pub @pwgtennant.bsky.social‬ 😊

John Snow

Physician, epidemiologist, and anaesthetist. Born in York, UK, on March 15, 1813, he died in London on June 16, 1858, aged 45 years.

thelancet.com

Peter Tennant@pwgtennant.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I love the John Snow Pub but I think he deserves a museum! He sacrificed so much to try & convince the medical community that cholera was spread by contaminated water & was shunned until death. The tone & brevity of his original obituary in the Lancet says it all. Cc @johnsnowsociety.bsky.social

Typo in student paper: Single-bling randomized control trial

a cat wearing sunglasses and a chain around its neck is sitting on a blue couch .

Alt: a cat wearing sunglasses and a shiny chain around its neck is sitting on a blue couch looking fabulous.

media.tenor.com

Causal inference coming to an unblinded trial near you! Hoping to read it more carefully soon and understand how it relates to previous efforts in measuring and handling unblinding (e.g. blinding indices) and to choice of control (e.g. active placebo) #Blinding #Masking #Unblinding #Unmasking

Gabe Loewinger@gabeloewinger.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Our team of statisticians and psychedelic researchers (@awlevis.bsky.social, Mats Stensrud + Sandeep Nayak & David Yaden of @jhpsychedelics.bsky.social) developed a causal inference framework for functional unmasking in psychedelic RCTs. See our pre-print + analysis guide/code: tinyurl.com/yhwez25p

Errare humanum est ... (To err is human ...) While preparing my PhD thesis, I discovered some (minor) errors in which trials and meta-analyses were included for analysis in our meta-epidemiological study. 1/5

Journal of Clinical Epidemiology@jclinepi.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Corrigendum to “Impact of active placebo controls on estimated drug effects in randomized trials: a meta-epidemiological study” [Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 188 (2025) 111998] - Journal of Clinical Epidemiology www.jclinepi.com/article/S089...

Webinar - read more and sign up: www.cochrane.org/events/how-t... On 17 February 2026, Andreas Lundh and Asbjørn Hrobjartsson will host a Cochrane Learning Live webinar about the TACIT tool.

Cochrane Denmark & CEBMO@cochranedkcebmo.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Tool for Addressing Conflicts of Interest in Trials (TACIT), included in systematic reviews, is now available! Developed by experts led by Lundh & Hróbjartsson at Cochrane Denmark. Try the unpublished tool: osf.io/5fzv3/. Learn more at www.tacit.one and share feedback with @alundh.bsky.social!

... IN MICE 🐭 jamesheathers.medium.com/in-mice-expl... Vigtigt med retvisende overskrifter og passende forbehold for ekstrapolering til mennesker. #JustSaysInMice #InMice #IMus

IN MICE, explained

The serious intent behind a wilfully dumb idea

jamesheathers.medium.com

Videnskab.dk@videnskab.dk · 9mo ago

»Stærkt overdrevet«: Forskere har gransket advarsler mod at spise mad ‘uden for sæson’ #dkvid #dkforsk

Happening TODAY at 3pm GMT 👇

Georgia Tomova@georgiatomova.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Have you ever wondered how the transportability of an estimate may be affected by the choice of effect measure? Join us in Nov to hear from @mpiccininni3.bsky.social on why the causal risk ratio might be more stable and transportable across settings. Sign up: ucl.zoom.us/meeting/regi... #CIIG

Have increased capacity for this December INSPECT-SR online training workshop following a successful 1st event today. Book here: www.trybooking.com/uk/FKHV

Introduction to INSPECT-SR Training Workshop December

An introductory 2-hour online workshop will introduce participants to the INSPECT-SR tool for assessing trustworthiness of randomised controlled...

trybooking.com

Recent trial with potential data problems @bmj.com. Great with IPD available for checking. Helpful/feasible with early standard checks in submission? E.g. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....) or INSPECT-IPD (in development, www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti..., @jdwilko.bsky.social)

The Individual Participant Data Integrity Tool for assessing the integrity of randomised trials

Increasing concerns about the trustworthiness of research have prompted calls to scrutinise studies' Individual Participant Data (IPD), but guidance on how to do this was lacking. To address this, we...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Dorothy Bishop@deevybee.bsky.social · 9mo ago

@bmj.com Please look at PubPeer comments on an article you published last week. pubpeer.com/publications... I think your research integrity dept shld act swiftly on this one, given clinical significance. I'm aware of even more evidence of problems so let me know if this is not sufficient.

What: Webinar on trial sequential analysis (TSA) in meta-analyses When: 28 Oct 2025 13:00 to 13:45 (CEST) Where: syddanskuni.zoom.us/j/61110310530 Christian Gunge Riberholt, associate professor at the University of Copenhagen, will talk about TSA and the potential errors of using it. #MetaAnalysis

Does anyone have any good examples of PPI for stats methodology? I’ve seen a few but they are all related to a clear applied research question, rather than actual methods

Does unblinding due to side effects lead to bias in placebo-controlled trials? And are active placebos a possible solution? (Spoiler alert: we are not sure.) #ActivePlacebo #ActivePlacebos #Blinding #Unblinding #Placebo #Bias 1/10

I forlængelse af sagen om SDU's pressemeddelelser - hermed lidt uformelle og inkomplette strøtanker til, når man skriver eller fortolker pressemeddelelser og anden videnskabelig kommunikation: 1/5

Last chance to participate - this will close on Sunday pm UK time. These results will be used to formulate guidance on demonstrating promise of an intervention when applying for funding for an RCT, pilot, or feasibility trial.

Jack Wilkinson@jdwilko.bsky.social · 12mo ago

How to demonstrate ‘promise of the intervention’ ahead of an RCT of the intervention? If you’d like to participate in the final round of the Promise Delphi, even if you didn’t do Round 1, then get in touch!

Hvad er #placebo? Hvor stor er placeboeffekten? Hvad gør man hvis blindede forsøgsdeltagere alligevel kan gætte deres behandling? Asbjørn Hróbjartsson og jeg er inviteret med i studiet hos Andreas Hoff for - måske - at komme nærmere på svarene på disse spørgsmål. open.spotify.com/episode/3aeI...

24 - om placebo

Mens Du Venter · Episode

open.spotify.com

Another round of workshops at SDU Odense to help you get started on your systematic review, scoping review, qualitative review, and other types of evidence synthesis: - 21 Aug 10am-12pm - 25 Sept 10am-12pm - 30 Oct 10am-12pm - 27 Nov 10am-12pm Read more and sign up: www.sdu.dk/en/forskning...

Monthly methods workshops

We offer monthly workshops on preparing systematic reviews. At the workshop, we introduce you to various types of reviews and guide you through the core steps of preparing them.

sdu.dk

The latest Bias Methods Group newsletter is live! Dive into fresh insights and essential updates on tackling bias in research, as well as a call for abstracts for the 2025 annual meeting! Read it on the BMG website: methods.cochrane.org/bias/about-u...

Assessing the feasibility and impact of clinical trial trustworthiness checks via an application to Cochrane Reviews: Stage 2 of the INSPECT-SR project - Journal of Clinical Epidemiology www.jclinepi.com/article/S089...

Funders expect evidence of 'promise' (the intervention is likely to work) when considering whether to fund an RCT, pilot, or feasibility study. But there is no shared understanding of how we should do this. We have been funded by @nihr.bsky.social to develop guidance to help.

Censor CDC scientists and ask them to withdraw papers from medical journals? This is not how it works, Mr President. Our response @bmj.com on the Trump Executive Order and his "forbidden words" www.bmj.com/content/388/...