The many benefits of ivermectin??

This is a rather curious article, or perhaps just poorly titled, and would be a good one to use for a journal club discussion of research technique. Basically, the researchers interviewed people who had been treated with ivermectin as part of an onchocerciasis control program, asking them what benefits they got from the drug.

The results were that minorities of 5% to 25% reported benefits such as disappearance of nodules, deworming, improved vision, improved libido in males, improved appetite, reversal of secondary amenorrhea, and disappearance of head lice.

As far as I can tell, there was no control group, no pre- and post-test comparison, no longitudinal data, ... simply asking people what results they had seen. Hence, a better title would be, "Perceived benefits of ivermectin..."

While ivermectin does, according to research cited in the article, have various benefits, the study itself does little to demonstrate those benefits; placebo treatment might have been seen as just as beneficial. Or did I miss something ...?

The varied beneficial effects of ivermectin (Mectizan) treatment, as observed within onchocerciasis foci in south-eastern Nigeria. Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, 101(7), October 2007 , pp. 593-600(8).

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