PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Giovanni Ostuzzi
AU  - Johannes Schneider-Thoma
AU  - Federico Tedeschi
AU  - Stefan Leucht
AU  - Corrado Barbui
TI  - Crossroads of methodological choices in research synthesis: insights from two network meta-analyses on preventing relapse in schizophrenia
AID  - 10.1136/bmjment-2023-300677
DP  - 2023 Feb 01
TA  - BMJ Mental Health
PG  - e300677
VI  - 26
IP  - 1
4099  - http://mentalhealth.bmj.com//content/26/1/e300677.short
4100  - http://mentalhealth.bmj.com//content/26/1/e300677.full
SO  - BMJ Ment Health2023 Feb 01; 26
AB  - In recent years, network meta-analyses have been increasingly carried out to inform clinical guidelines and policy. This approach is under constant development, and a broad consensus on how to carry out several of its methodological and statistical steps is still lacking. Therefore, different working groups might often make different methodological choices based on their clinical and research experience, with possible advantages and shortcomings. In this contribution, we will critically assess two network meta-analyses on the topic of pharmacological prevention of relapse in schizophrenia, carried out by two different research groups. We will highlight the implications of different methodological choices on the analysis results and their clinical–epidemiological interpretation. Moreover, we will discuss some of the most relevant technical issues of network meta-analyses for which there is not a broad methodological agreement, including the assessment of transitivity.