Dear Editor:
We read the paper by Weber et al. (Weber, Schumacher, & Hannig, Reference Weber, Schumacher and Hannig2021) with interest. The authors performed a meta-analysis to investigate the long-term outcomes across psychological treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The results of the meta-analysis on psychological treatment for PTSD demonstrate large and sustained benefits after at least 12 months of follow-up. After carefully reading, I wish to put forth the following suggestions.
References Foa et al. (Reference Foa, Dancu, Hembree, Jaycox, Meadows and Street1999) and Foa et al. (Reference Foa, Hembree, Cahill, Rauch, Riggs, Feeny and Yadin2005) in Table 1 (Study characteristics of included randomized controlled trials) were created by the same author team with the similar characteristics (population, trauma type, outcome measure, treatment). This duplicate inclusion of the data would affect the credibility of the meta-analysis' final results. I recommend that the authors must exclude duplicate works in the meta-analysis and a previous correction and reliable checking of the data insertion is required.
Due to these mistakes, I recommend to the author to request a completely new evaluation of all data setting. Mistakes in the inclusions are not allowed if the credibility of the meta-analysis results is desired.
Acknowledgments
Department of Hematology, the People's Hospital of Baise, Baise, China.
Conflict of interest
None.
Consent for publication
All authors agree to be published.