Letters
Varenicline’s adverse events
Flaws in analysis lead to misleading conclusions about varenicline’s safety in smoking cessation
BMJ 2012; 344 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e3873 (Published 12 June 2012) Cite this as: BMJ 2012;344:e3873
- Sonal Singh, assistant professor1,
- Yoon K Loke, clinical senior lecturer2
- 1Johns Hopkins University, 680 B, 624 N Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
- 2Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
- sosingh{at}jhsph.edu
The meta-analysis by Prochaska and Hilton has several methodological limitations in data analysis and interpretation, which lead to misleading conclusions.1 Despite the removal of cardiovascular events from the trials and a statistical approach that has limited power to detect a significant effect, there is an excess risk of cardiovascular events with varenicline in all five measures reported.
The risk difference model Prochaska and Hilton used is statistically …
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