BMJ  2005;331 (13 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7513.0-f

Editor's choice

More confused—but better informed

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

"I am now thoroughly confused but better informed." This confession by Martin Dawes relates to combating head lice (p 362), but we might consider using it as a measure of success for a medical journal. Confusion may be but a step on the path to understanding.

Dawes's confusion is over a study by Nigel Hill and colleagues that compared the effectiveness of pediculicides with the "Bug Buster" set of combs in removing head lice (p 384). This showed that the combs were more effective but it also showed much lower rates of cure with the pediculicides (13%) than have been found in other trials (70-80%). Dawes tries to unravel why that might be so (differences in study population, biases, a single dose), but he ends up concluding that bug busting is probably as good as two applications of pediculicides.

Other results in this week's BMJ will . . . [Full text of this article]

Jane Smith, deputy editor

(jsmith@bmj.com)


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