Meta-analyses in alcohol and other drug abuse treatment research

Meta-analysis is a quantitative method of synthesizing empirical evidence across a collection of related studies and addresses many of the weaknesses of traditional narrative forms of reviewing. This paper describes the basic methods for conducting a state-of-the-art meta-analysis and criticizes 11 extant meta-analyses of alcohol and other drug abuse treatment programs. Eight of these 11 meta-analyses used questionable methods and contributed little to our understanding of the effects of these programs. The paper concludes with a proposal for an archive of alcohol and other drug services research to facilitate and improve the quality of future meta-analyses.