By Susan Brink
..."There's evidence that children treated with deworming medication grow better and have better cognitive performance," says Judd Walson, associate professor at the University of Washington. Walson wrote an editorial in the Oct. 22 issue of PLOS: Neglected Tropical Diseases. "A study from Kenya showed better school performance and even better job performance.“
But the Cochrane Review, which summarizes evidence from existing research, didn't look at observational studies. Typically, Cochrane reviewers look only at clinical trials, considered the gold standard of science because researchers can control how subjects are assigned to different experimental groups and which treatment each group receives.
"They're saying that there's a lack of evidence of benefit, not that there's evidence of a lack of benefit. And that's a critical distinction," Walson says.