In episode 579, Mike and James invite Nicholas Dugré back to the podcast to talk about the evidence around the benefits and harms of a new class of medications for the acute treatment of episodic migraines. Ubrogepant is an oral calcitonin gene-related peptide antagonist. In this case, amazing as it may sound, there are triple the number of systematic reviews than there are RCTs. Nonetheless, we go over all the evidence and at the end of the podcast you’ll know what the world knows about these agents.

Show notes

Tools for Practice

Oral Calcitonin Gene-related Peptide Antagonists: A painfully long name for the acute treatment of migraines

In episode 578, Mike, James and Jennifer Potter try to answer the question, in patients with dementia, how safe and effective are stimulants, antidepressants, and antipsychotics for treating apathy? We look at the evidence for methylphenidate, antipsychotics, and antidepressants so tune in to find out if any of these treatments have any sort of effect in this very difficult to treat condition.

Show notes
Tools for Practice
Making a difference in indifference? Medications for apathy in dementia

In episode 577, Mike and James invite Jennifer Young to join us to go over all the evidence around how best to close punch biopsies, lacerations and incisions. We go over all the evidence for sutures (absorbable/nonabsorbable), skin glue, and tape. We look at cosmesis, patient satisfaction, and infection rates so have a listen and find out what we found.

Show notes
Tools for Practice
Looking for Closure: Managing simple excisions or wounds efficiently

In episode 576, James, Mike, and Jamie continue to review the evidence for acne treatments. In this podcast, we examine if antibiotics work and we find they do have an effect. Check out the podcast for all the numbers.

Show notes
Tools for Practice
Facing the Evidence in Acne, Part II: Oral Antibiotics

Tools for Practice
Is less more with isotretinoin and acne?

Alberta Medication Costs

In episode 575, James and Mike invite Jamie Falk back to the podcast to help us sift through all the evidence for using oral contraceptives and spironolactone to treat acne. We find that they actually do work. We go over all the numbers for the benefits and harms. Have a listen.

Show notes
Tools for Practice
Facing the Evidence in Acne, Part I: Oral contraceptives and spironolactone in females

In episode 574, James and Mike invite Jennifer Young back to the podcast to help us yet again look at the evidence for cranberries and the prevention of UTI’s. Unfortunately, there is a problem with the evidence as there is a high risk-of-bias from potential publication bias, small studies, and unblinding. However, if we look past some of these biases, cranberry products might be worth a try. But have a listen and see what the evidence says.

Show notes
1) Tools for Practice
Any berry good solutions to preventing UTIs: Cranberries?
2) MAKING EVIDENCE MATTER for EVERYONE CONFERENCE
Vancouver
May 24/25, 2024

In episode 573, James and Mike invite Jamie Falk back to the podcast to help us simplify all the evidence around using antipsychotics for difficult to treat depression. They do seem to “work”, but you really need to know the numbers around what “work” means. At the end of the podcast, you will!

Show notes
1) Tools for Practice
Overcoming Resistance: Antipsychotics for difficult to treat depression
2) MAKING EVIDENCE MATTER for EVERYONE CONFERENCE
Vancouver
May 24/25, 2024

In episode 572, James and Mike invite Samantha Moe back to the podcast to go over the evidence around the safety and effectiveness of the monoclonal antibodies used to reduce the risk of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections in infants. We go over all the numbers for hospitalizations and death so you can make evidence-informed decisions.

Show Notes
1) Tools for Practice
Preventing RSV Infections in Infants

2) MAKING EVIDENCE MATTER for EVERYONE CONFERENCE
Vancouver
May 24/25, 2024
https://hectalks.com

In episode 570, James and Mike finish their trilogy on statistics. We take what we discussed in the previous podcasts and go through a couple of examples that will hopefully solidify what all the terms and numbers really mean.

Show Notes
1) Sensible Medicine
Doing statistics can be difficult but understanding them can be fairly simple
2) Analysis of 567,758 randomized controlled trials published over 30 years reveals trends in phrases used to discuss results that do not reach statistical significance
PLoS Biol 2022: e3001562. https:// doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001562

In episode 569, James and Mike continue to go over what statistics really show – we focus on what inferential statistics can and cannot do, what a p value means and more importantly what it doesn’t mean. And yes we try to keep all this stat stuff on a realistic and practical level – easier said than done.

Show Notes
Sensible Medicine
Doing statistics can be difficult but understanding them can be fairly simple