Indication

Abstract

The formulation of the indication problem and the evaluation procedures in this chapter, even more than other parts of the study, should be regarded as an attempt towards a model from which hypotheses can be generated. It is imperative that any results reached by this kind of attempt be subjected to further testing; in this study cross-validation of the relationships between indication variables and outcome criteria was impossible, because the subgroups produced by random halving (separately for men and women) would be too small. Nevertheless, we wished to show whether the data in this study have anything to contribute towards optimizing treatment outcome. We are very aware that the procedures in this chapter are in particular need of discussion and empirical testing in other, independent study populations, and that this should be done before any conclusions for practice are drawn.