Cochrane Library Podcasts

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is a fast-growing cancer of the lymphatic system. A new Cochrane Review from September 2021 looks at the evidence on the effects of one treatment, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for people whose disease relapses or does not respond to other treatments. We asked the lead author, Moritz Ernst from the Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne in Germany to tell us what they found.

There are many Cochrane Reviews of ways to help smokers to quit. One of these, on research into interventions that might help in reducing any subsequent weight gain was updated in October 2021. Annika Theodoulou from the University of Oxford in the UK worked on the update and tells us what they found in this podcast.

Music therapy is used for a variety of conditions and several Cochrane Reviews examine its effects. A team of music therapists with expertise in the use of music therapy with medical patients updated their review for cancer patients in October 2021. Joke Bradt from the department of Creative Arts Therapies at Drexel University in Philadelphia, USA tells us what they found in this Evidence Pod. She conducted the review with Cheryl Dileo from Temple University in Philadelphia, Katherine Myers-Coffman from Molloy College in Rockville Center, and Jacelyn Biondo, postdoctoral fellow in the department of Creative Arts Therapies at Drexel University.

Chronic low back pain is a very common health problem and there are many relevant reviews in the Cochrane Library. A new review, of nearly 250 studies of the effects of exercise, was added to the Library in September 2021. Toby Lasserson, Deputy Editor in Chief of the Library spoke with lead author, Jill Hayden from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada about the review and its findings.

Cochrane is producing a series of living reviews relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic and, in August 2021, we published the first version of our review on remdesivir. We asked one of the authors, Felicitas Grundeis from the University of Leipzig Medical Center in Germany to tell us about the need for the review and its results.

Cochrane is producing a series of reviews to help decision makers respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. In September 2021, we published the first version of a Living Systematic Review on the effects of monoclonal antibodies for treating COVID-19 and in this podcast we speak to Nina Kreuzberger one of the lead authors, about the review, which was initiated in the Germany-wide joint projects "COVIM" and "CEOsys" and funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany.

Cochrane is producing a series of reviews relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic. In July 2021, we published the first version of our review on the effects of ivermectin for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19, in a collaboration between Cochrane's Infectious Diseases and Haematological Malignancy Groups. We asked one of the authors, Maria Popp from University Hospital Wuerzburg in Germany, to tell us about their findings.

The Cochrane Common Mental Disorders Group has produced many reviews of the effects on interventions for conditions such as anxiety and depression. They added to these in November 2020 with a substantially revised version of their review of the use of cognitive behavioural therapy for children and adolescents. We asked one of the authors, Tessa Reardon from the University of Oxford in the UK, to tell us about the importance of this review and what it found.

Cochrane Reviews cover a wide range of interventions to help couples with infertility or subfertility to conceive, and these are updated to take account of new evidence or introduce new review methods. One of the reviews, looking at preconception lifestyle advice for people with infertility, was updated for the first time in April 2021 and we asked lead author, Tessy Boedt from the Department of Chronic Diseases and Metabolism at KU Leuven in Belgium to tell us more.

Cochrane is producing a series of reviews to help decision makers respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2021, we published the first version of a living systematic review on the effects of vitamin D supplementation and, in this podcast, Vanessa Piechotta talks to the first author and her colleague at the University Hospital in Cologne Germany, Julia Stroehlein, about the potential effects of vitamin D and the evidence they’ve found.