STEP 4 and the withdrawal question, without the panic

Started 3 March 2026 · 15 replies · 117 hearts · read 1.3k times

AmmiKarachi, PK · 3 March 2026

5 months ago

A question rather than an update: STEP 4 and the withdrawal question, without the panic

I have read the paper and I am not sure I have understood it.

I would like to compare how two different measurements answer two different questions, because I have been treating them as interchangeable.

I have a document in front of me and I can read every line of it and I still cannot tell what it proves.

If anybody has the primary source, I would be very grateful for it — I have been going round in circles.

EphraimBrooklyn, NY

What I would flag is that a study in a different population may not transfer, and that is a limitation rather than a criticism.

PádraigGalway, IE

Somebody here asked what would change our minds, at the start of a session, and it improved the discussion enormously.

SunilFacilitatorBirmingham, UK

Facilitator note: if the last few replies have touched something for you, there is no need to say so here. Our support resources page lists what to look for, quietly and without any drama.

PerrineStrasbourg, FR

Building on what Pádraig wrote rather than answering the original question.

Something worth knowing: the difference between a trial and an observational study changes what you can conclude, and I did not know that two years ago.

PetuaKampala, UG

What I have taken from this group is mostly humility about how much is genuinely settled.

9me too 8

XanBerlin, DE

Reading Sunil, I recognised more of that than I expected to.

I would encourage anybody nervous about joining to come and say nothing for a few sessions. That is what I did for four months.

NkemPort Harcourt, NG

The session where we read a paper about something none of us takes was the most useful, because nobody was defending a position.

PatrickLimerick, IE

Nothing here is medical advice, and a paper is not a recommendation for any individual person including the ones in it.

PriyaReading, UK

Coming back to say the fortnightly rhythm has held for two years and it is the thing on this site I would least like to lose.

BettinaGraz, AT

#10

I have nothing to add and I did not want to leave it unanswered.

10me too 4

AbelAddis Ababa, ET

#11

Bettina said something I want to sit with for a second.

I found the discussion sections the least reliable part of most papers and the results tables the most.

6me too 9

GwendaEbbw Vale, UK

#12

The registry entry is worth checking against the published paper, and on one occasion the outcomes we were reading were not the ones originally listed.

RuthieLeicester, UK

#13

My reading has got slower and better. I get through a quarter of what I used to and I understand considerably more of it.

SunilFacilitatorBirmingham, UK

#14

Speaking as a facilitator: we do not post protocols in this circle. Describing what a study did is welcome; presenting a schedule as established is not.

GwilymCaernarfon, UK

#15

Reading this properly rather than skimming, which is all I have to offer today.

9me too 4