The following websites evaluate the efficacy of presciption drugs and medical interventions. Direct links are provided for representitive reports from select sites.
“The Cochrane Library is a collection of databases that contain high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making.” – About
“Cochrane exists to provide reliable evidence that people can use to make more informed health decisions. We produce evidence in the form of systematic reviews by carefully examining all of the scientific research to answer a particular question – for example, ‘does treatment X help people with disease Y?’ – and working out what the overall effect is. We use sophisticated methods to combine and compare several studies, sometimes hundreds, making our reviews more reliable than individual studies.” – About us
Representitive Reports
- Approaches for discontinuation versus continuation of long‐term antidepressant use for depressive and anxiety disorders in adults (2021)
- Antidepressants versus placebo for generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) (2025)
- Pharmacological treatments in panic disorder in adults: a network meta‐analysis (2023)
- Combined pharmacological and psychosocial interventions for alcohol use disorder (2025)
- Do amphetamines increase blood pressure? (2025)
“An internet-based repository that lets the clinical community report novel uses of existing drugs for difficult-to-treat infectious diseases through a website, a smartphone or other mobile device. The platform enables the crowdsourcing of medical information from health care providers to facilitate the development of new treatments for neglected diseases. CURE ID is a collaboration between the FDA and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS).” – FDA Description
Targeted neglected diseases:
- Infectious diseases (e.g. adenovirus, bacteremia, candida)
- Infection-associated chronic conditions (e.g. Long COVID)
- Rare cancers (e.g. angiosarcoma, osteosarcoma, liposarcoma)
- Rare genetic disorders (e.g. Costello syndrome, Noonan syndrome)
- Other diseases (e.g. fibromyalgia, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome)
Epistemonikos is Greek for “what is worth knowing”.
“Epistemonikos is a collaborative, multilingual database of health evidence. It is the largest source of systematic reviews relevant for health-decision making, and a large source of other types of scientific evidence. The main aim of Epistemonikos is to gather scientific information (i.e. evidence) that might be relevant for health decision-making, and to provide rapid and reliable access to the best available evidence for real-life questions.” – Who we are
“Databases regularly updated:
- Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR);
- Pubmed; EMBASE; CINAHL (The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature);
- PsycINFO; LILACS (Literatura Latinoamericana y del Caribe en Ciencias de la Salud).” – Methods
Review by: Yamila M El-Khayat in the Journal of the Medical Library Association
Representitive Reports
- Semaglutide – latest articles
- Tirzepatide – latest articles
- Abuse and Misuse of Pregabalin and Gabapentin (2017)
EvidenceAlerts catalogues articles on medical intervention safety and efficacy, including analysis of prescription drugs.
“EvidenceAlerts is a continuously updated repository of current best evidence from research to support evidence-based clinical decisions. All articles from 125 premier clinical journals are pre-rated for quality by highly trained research staff, then rated for clinical relevance and interest by at least 3 members of a worldwide panel of practicing physicians. Only the strongest studies and systematic reviews are selected for EvidenceAlerts; less than 1 in 10 published articles makes the grade.” – About
Representitive Reports
- Tirzepatide as Compared with Semaglutide for the Treatment of Obesity (2025)
- Once-Weekly Semaglutide in Adults With Alcohol Use Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial (2025)
- Comparative effectiveness of interventions to facilitate deprescription of benzodiazepines and other sedative hypnotics: systematic review and meta-analysis (2025).
- Are Gabapentinoids Effective at Reducing Pain and Improving Sleep After Nerve Injury? A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (2025)
- Discontinuation versus continuation of statins: A systematic review (2024)
The NNT is the average number of patients who need to be treated to prevent one additional bad outcome.
“We are a group of physicians that have developed a framework and rating system to evaluate therapies based on their patient-important benefits and harms as well as a system to evaluate diagnostics by patient sign, symptom, lab test or study. We only use the highest quality, evidence-based studies (frequently, but not always Cochrane Reviews), and we accept no outside funding or advertisements.” – Homepage
Representitive Reports
- SGLT-2 Inhibitors and GLP-1 Receptor Agonists for Type 2 Diabetes (2024)
- Metformin for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (2024)
- Corticosteroids for Low Back Pain (2023)
- Statin Drugs Given for 5 Years for Heart Disease Prevention (Without Known Heart Disease) (2015)
- Blood Pressure Medicines for Five Years to Prevent Death, Heart Attacks, and Strokes (2014)
- Statins Given for 5 Years for Heart Disease Prevention (With Known Heart Disease) (2013)
“The Therapeutics Initiative (TI) was established in 1994 by the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics in cooperation with the Department of Family Practice at The University of British Columbia with its mission to provide physicians, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, allied health professionals & the public with up-to-date, independent, evidence-based, practical information on healthcare interventions.” – About
The Drug Assessment Working Group (DAWG) is committed to analyze scientific evidence on the effectiveness and safety of drug therapies used in Canada. The DAWG systematically reviews and, when appropriate, critically appraises research relevant to new and existing drugs. Often the goal is to discover whether a new drug provides a therapeutic advantage over existing similar drug therapy for a clinical condition. – Drug Assessments
Affiliated with deprescribing.org
Representitive Reports
- A systematic review of single-inhaler triple triple therapy for treatment of adult patients with moderate-to-severe COPD (2025)
- Finding the lowest effective dose for non-opioid analgesics (2022)
- Do proton pump inhibitors increase mortality? A systematic review and in‐depth analysis of the evidence (2020)