The MAHA Report Has Been Updated With Fresh Errors

[Nevilledog]

https://www.notus.org/health-science/maha-report-update-citation-errors

No paywall link
https://archive.li/sqT8z

The Trump administration’s clean up of the “Make America Healthy Again” Commission’s hallmark and error-riddled report is opening new questions about how the report’s authors drew some of its sweeping conclusions about the state of Americans’ health.

At least 18 of the original report’s citations have been edited or completely swapped out for new references since NOTUS first revealed the errors Thursday morning. While some of the original report’s inconsistencies have been changed, a few of the new updated citations continue to misinterpret scientific studies.

One study NOTUS identified as misinterpreted in the original report was intended to support the claim that psychotherapy is more effective for children than medication for treating mental health concerns. That study was swapped out with a new “systematic overview” authored by psychologist Pim Cuijpers, who told NOTUS via email that MAHA’s new citation is also wrong.

Cuijpers said his referenced study doesn’t cover psychiatric medications in children at all — the research was focused on adults. The citation is located in a section of the MAHA report titled, “American children are highly medicated – and it’s not working.”

“Treatments of depression in adolescents have a different efficacy than treatments in adults, so they cannot be compared, and this reference is therefore not usable in adolescents,” said Cuijpers, one of Amsterdam’s most-cited psychologists. “It also fails to state that the combination of therapy and antidepressants is superior to therapy or antidepressants alone.”

He added that there is no evidence that psychotherapy is more effective than antidepressants in adolescents.

*snip*