Reply to the commentary by Kari Poikolainen on evaluation of the effect of treatment of alcohol and drug problems by the Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health Care (SBU)

We appreciate the careful reading and evaluation of the SwedishCouncil on Technology Assessment in Health Care (SBU, 2001)report by Dr Poikolainen (SBU, 2002). Poikolainen discussesseveral important issues, not only related to the report butalso to systematic reviews in general. First, we shall commenton the SBU methodology. SBU METHODOLOGY It is important to stress that the methodology applied is basicallya series of systematic reviews of the available literature.The use of meta-analytical procedures depends on the characterof the studies on the different topics. In most previous SBUreports meta-analytical techniques have not been applied. Inour opinion, the development of meta-analytical methodologyand the availability of effective software for performing meta-analyticalcalculations have made this