english.prescrire.org > Spotlight > Archives : 2014 > • Decline in vigilance: ever a fertile ground for misconceptions!

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• Decline in vigilance: ever a fertile ground for misconceptions!

Not so fast! Our desire for ever greater speed can give birth to some horrendously premature conclusions. We all need an annual April "booster shot", to take a good, hard look at our perception of information.


Poisson d'avril ! APRIL FOOL'S! 
Alert readers the world over will have recognised that our item entitled "Hormone treatment promises to shorten time of pregnancy, yielding cost savings, productivity gains" – though no doubt tempting to many in positions of power – was in fact an April fool's prank.

3 Decades of "fishy business" in April
The traditional April prank by Prescrire's editors serves as an annual "booster shot" to remind us all that in the serious business of medical information, it pays to exercise critical judgement at all times.

In April 1983 Prescrire's "special correspondent" revealed to enthralled readers the enormous interest of protryptophane in the treatment of acute senility... And ever since, the experiment has been repeated yearly in La revue Prescrire's April issue.

In 2003 Prescrire's "April fish" (as the seasonal pranks are known in France) even made it into the English edition, Prescrire International. It's included below, in a sampling of Prescrire's yearly "Poissons d'avril".

Greatest hits from Prescrire's annual "Poisson d'avril" prank

  •  IN ENGLISH  Tour de France: ads in the saddle! (1 April 2003)
    "In case Credit Lyonnais pulls out of Tour de France sponsorship, negotiations with the French pharmaceutical federation are nearing completion... Companies manufacturing growth hormones and erythropoietin, have opted for the spotted jersey for the best climber..."
    "Tour de France: ads in the saddle!" Prescrire Int 2003; 11 (66): 307. (pdf, free)

©Prescrire 1 April 2014

Hormonal treatment
promises to shorten
time of pregnancy,
yielding cost savings,
productivity gains
Prescrire Int 2014:
23 (148): 111.
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