The first release of CDSR will contain systematic reviews on the effectiveness of treatments for schizophrenia. For example, family-based therapy is shown to be an effective intervention. Other systematic reviews will look at the effectiveness of treatments for stroke. A Cochrane systematic review is a comprehensive review of the effectiveness of health care interventions based on the findings of relevant randomised controlled trials. Where more than one randomised controlled trial is avaialbe, the results from the individual trials are combined to form a meta-analysis.
Back pain imposes significant personal and social costs.
Epidemiology of back pain is imprecise, but it is estimated that it produces over 2,000,000 primary care episodes annually, and that the degree of disability produced, as reflected in days missed from work, is rising. For these reasons there has been considerable recent interest in the effectiveness of prevention and treatment programmes. Spinal manipulation may be helpful. Low stress exercise such as walking, swimming or cycling may be effective. There is no evidence to support the following treatments - spinal traction, biofeedback, TENS, acupuncture, lumbar corsets.