Similar studies

Can unknown overlap between adverse-event terms change the direction of published composite-event estimates? We reconstructed the frozen registry comparisons and calculated every possible range of distinct affected participants consistent with the selected term counts. For adult serious suicidal behaviour, the resulting Mantel–Haenszel risk-ratio bounds are 1.712 to 2.1962; for adult serious suicidality, 1.2154 to 1.8476. The corresponding pediatric bounds are 1.0045 to 1.4773 and 1.8144 to 2.8091. All remain above the null. Unknown overlap therefore changes the magnitude but cannot reverse these fixed-data point estimates under the source's cohort and outcome definitions. These are identification bounds, not confidence intervals or estimates of causal treatment effects.

• Published, Reproduced.Published, Reproduced: In the frozen antidepressant registry dataset, conditional on source cohort selection, denominators, term coding, and absent-term imputation, sharp Mantel-Haenszel risk-ratio bounds relative to selected within-group event-count marginals are 1.7120261533 to 2.1961879882 for adult serious suicidal behaviour, 1.2154409158 to 1.8475901940 for adult serious suicidality, 1.0045047792 to 1.4773331886 for pediatric serious behaviour, and 1.8144436696 to 2.8090979871 for pediatric serious suicidality. Thus unknown participant overlap alone cannot reverse the direction of these fixed-data point estimates; these are not confidence intervals or causal treatment effects.

An observational atlas linked GLP-1 receptor agonists to dozens of outcomes beyond glucose, weight and the heart. We pooled the serious adverse events that 234 placebo-controlled trials, with 161309 participants, posted to ClinicalTrials.gov, coded blind to the results under a registered plan. Reports of serious bacterial infection (ratio 0.88, confidence interval 0.83 to 0.93) and pneumonia (0.87) were less frequent on the drugs, as were pneumonia counted in people and death. The reductions held under random effects, with any trial left out, if infection terms overlapped within participants as all serious events do in each comparison, and in trials not coded as recording only on treatment. Of the atlas's associations with enough events to test, the trials found three in its direction with no difference from it detected, contradicted none, and left most inconclusive, among them every neurological and psychiatric one; its large hazard of drug-induced pancreatitis concerns a subtype the trials don't separate.

• Published, Reproduced.Published, Reproduced: Of the 539 interventional studies of GLP-1 receptor agonists with results on ClinicalTrials.gov on 2026-10-12, 234 randomized trials compare a GLP-1 receptor agonist with placebo, in 257 comparisons with 161,309 participants in their adverse-event tables (93,765 on the drugs and 67,544 on placebo). In them, reports of serious gallbladder and biliary disease, counting a participant once for each of the outcome's terms they had, are more frequent on the drugs (Mantel-Haenszel ratio 1.38, 95% CI 1.21 to 1.57), and so are reports of serious nausea and vomiting (2.02, 1.52 to 2.68), as the trials' own publications and the drugs' labels lead one to expect.

Ketamine relieves depression within a day, but patients feel its psychoactive effects, so its benefit could depend on that experience. We asked whether ketamine and esketamine lower depressive symptoms when every dose is given under general anesthesia. Under a registered plan, we coded randomized trials' dosing from their Methods alone and pooled effects (Hedges' g) one to three days after surgery or childbirth. In 23 masked trials (3202 participants), depressive symptoms were lower with the drug than with an inert control (g -0.61, confidence interval -0.81 to -0.4; Holm-adjusted p < 0.001), though trials varied widely. Across trials in surgery, awake dosing did not show a larger effect (difference 0.12, -0.24 to 0.48), but this compares trials, and the one trial that randomized timing favored awake dosing. Masked doses also lowered pain. Ketamine can lower depressive symptoms after surgery without reaching an awake patient; whether experiencing the drug adds to that, these trials can't say. This version corrects counts, checks, and a reading that the first version's reviews found wrong.

• Published, Reproduced.Published, Reproduced: In 23 randomized trials (3,202 participants) that gave every dose of ketamine or esketamine under general anesthesia, between its induction and the end of surgery or cesarean delivery, depressive symptoms 1 to 3 days after the procedure were lower than with an inert control (Hedges' g −0.61, 95% CI −0.81 to −0.40; Holm-adjusted p < 0.001), though the trials varied widely (95% prediction interval −1.51 to 0.29). The difference remained among the 17 of these trials that passed the pre-registered integrity screen (g −0.48, −0.63 to −0.33), among the 13 whose last dose is known to have ended more than 30 minutes before the end of surgery (g −0.67, −1.04 to −0.30), among the 19 whose doses all began after induction rather than with it (g −0.60, −0.85 to −0.36), and with any single trial left out (largest p < 0.001).

Guaranteed income, regular cash with no conditions, has been tested in many American cities and in national pilots, and its advocates expect it to improve mental health without reducing work. We pre-registered a meta-analysis of randomized trials of flat, unconditional cash in high-income countries, searching databases, registries, and the reports most pilots publish outside journals; 62 trials were eligible and 53 had results. About a year into payments, mental health was better in the cash arms by 0.09 standard deviations (CI 0.041 to 0.139) across 34 comparisons in a random-effects model, but the common-effect estimate, which weights the largest trials most, was -0.002 (-0.023 to 0.018), and smaller trials reported larger effects. Employment changed by 0.599 percentage points (-2.533 to 3.731), and the mental-health effect did not fade during payments. Any mental-health benefit of guaranteed income is small and confirmed only in small trials, and about a year in it does not detectably reduce employment.

• Published, Reproduced.Published, Reproduced: In 34 comparisons from 32 randomized trials of recurring unconditional cash in high-income countries (16,834 people analysed), mental health about 12 months into payments was better in the cash arms by a pooled standardized mean difference of 0.090 (95% CI 0.041 to 0.139; Holm-corrected p = 0.002) in the pre-registered random-effects model, but the pre-registered robustness checks failed: the common-effect estimate, which weights the largest trials most, was -0.002 (-0.023 to 0.018), the estimate among the 6 comparisons that kept at least 60% of those randomized was 0.043 (-0.077 to 0.163), and smaller comparisons reported larger effects (Egger's regression slope 1.54, 95% CI 0.75 to 2.33; p < 0.001).

The World Health Organization's 2020 guideline recommended giving mass azithromycin, which lowers child mortality in high-mortality settings of sub-Saharan Africa, only to infants, to limit antibiotic resistance; no trial had then tested that. Under a pre-registered plan we pooled every randomized trial by whom it treated. Treating all children under five lowered their mortality by 14.1% (CI 7.4% to 20.3%), consistently across trials. In the three trials that treated only infants, infant mortality was not detectably lower (rate ratio 0.971, CI 0.867 to 1.086), an interval that excludes the effect of treating all children. Infants had lower mortality when all children were treated, though a between-trial comparison of the two strategies fell short of significance, and giving azithromycin to individual infants at clinic visits showed no effect. The infant-only approach has not lowered mortality in any trial that tested it; treating all children under five has.

• Published, Reproduced.Published, Reproduced: In 5 placebo-controlled comparisons from 3 cluster-randomized trials (MORDOR in Niger, Malawi and Tanzania; AVENIR in Niger; CHAT in Burkina Faso), twice-yearly mass azithromycin to every child 1 to 59 months old lowered mortality among children 1 to 59 months by 14.1% (rate ratio 0.859, 95% CI 0.797 to 0.926; Holm-corrected p = 0.015; I² = 0%), and the reduction held with a common-effect model (0.859, 0.813 to 0.908) and with any one comparison left out (largest p = 0.044).
• Published, Reproduced.Published, Reproduced: