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Bias, Confounding, Multiplicity and Researchers’ Degrees of Freedom Combined with Segmented Publications are not Likely to Provide Accurate Estimates of Reality: A Case Study of Two Candidate-Gene Association Reports in the First Episode Psychosis Patients
Version 1
: Received: 16 June 2020 / Approved: 18 June 2020 / Online: 18 June 2020 (07:50:33 CEST)
How to cite:
Trkulja, V. Bias, Confounding, Multiplicity and Researchers’ Degrees of Freedom Combined with Segmented Publications are not Likely to Provide Accurate Estimates of Reality: A Case Study of Two Candidate-Gene Association Reports in the First Episode Psychosis Patients. Preprints2020, 2020060226. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202006.0226.v1
Trkulja, V. Bias, Confounding, Multiplicity and Researchers’ Degrees of Freedom Combined with Segmented Publications are not Likely to Provide Accurate Estimates of Reality: A Case Study of Two Candidate-Gene Association Reports in the First Episode Psychosis Patients. Preprints 2020, 2020060226. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202006.0226.v1
Trkulja, V. Bias, Confounding, Multiplicity and Researchers’ Degrees of Freedom Combined with Segmented Publications are not Likely to Provide Accurate Estimates of Reality: A Case Study of Two Candidate-Gene Association Reports in the First Episode Psychosis Patients. Preprints2020, 2020060226. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202006.0226.v1
APA Style
Trkulja, V. (2020). <strong>Bias, Confounding, Multiplicity and <em>Researchers’ Degrees of Freedom</em> Combined with Segmented Publications are not Likely to Provide Accurate Estimates of Reality: A Case Study of Two Candidate-Gene Association Reports in the First Episode Psychosis Patients</strong>. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202006.0226.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Trkulja, V. 2020 "<strong>Bias, Confounding, Multiplicity and <em>Researchers’ Degrees of Freedom</em> Combined with Segmented Publications are not Likely to Provide Accurate Estimates of Reality: A Case Study of Two Candidate-Gene Association Reports in the First Episode Psychosis Patients</strong>" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202006.0226.v1
Abstract
Estimation of the reality can easily be flawed, hence, in order to result in accurate and useful estimates the process has to be protected from bias and confounding and should follow other methodological milestones inherent to different types of empirical observations. Candidate-gene association studies are a specific form of observations that have been rather extensively applied in psychiatry yielding valuable information on various aspects – when methodologically adequate and used in appropriate settings. However, certain flaws that may occur in such studies might not be bluntly obvious, at least not at first glance, and may pass unnoticed by researchers and reviewers. This case study uses two recent published candidate-gene association reports suggesting involvement of cannabinoid receptor type 1 and of heat shock protein single nucleotide polymorphisms in development of neurocognitive performance and psychopathology in a cohort of adult first episode psychosis patients to point-out the types of flaws inevitably resulting in inaccurate and useless estimates.
Keywords
candidate-gene association; estimation; bias; confounding; case study
Subject
Medicine and Pharmacology, Psychiatry and Mental Health
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
