Neurology

Condition or Disorder	Intervention vs. Control	Outcome	Follow-up Duration	Event Rates %		NNT (95% CI)
				CER	EER
Alcohol-related seizures1	Lorazepam vs. placebo	Occurrence of a second seizure	6 hours	24	3	5 (4 to 9)
Care for acute stroke victims2	Patients were allocated to a Stroke unit or to Ward care	Proportion of patients living at home	5 years	18.2	34.5	6 (4 to 21)
Migraine headaches3	Riboflavin vs. placebo	Frequency of headaches	3 months	19	54	3 (2 to 11)
		Headache days		15	57	3 (2 to 6)
Acute stroke unit care4	Stroke unit vs. general ward care	Quality of life measured by the Frenchay Activity index ≥ 30 points	5 years	40.6		5 (2 to 80)
Non-disabling stroke; carotid endarterectomy5	Carotid endarterectomy vs. medical care	Ipsolateral stroke	5 years	18.7	13.1	18 (10 to 186)
		Any stroke		26.4	19.8	15 (8 to 100)
		Stroke or death		36.4	27.9	12 (7 to 44)
		Disabling stroke or death		20.1	14.9	19 (10 to 783)
Multiple sclerosis attacks6	Methylpredni-solone vs. placebo	≥ 1 point improvement on Kurtzke Expanded Disability Status Scale	1 year	22	50	4 (2 to 105)
Secondary progressive multiple sclerosis7	Interferon-b1b vs. placebo	Progression	33 months	49.7	39.1	9 (6 to 30)
Acute Stroke7	Intra-arterial recombinant prourokinase plus intravenous heparin vs. intravenous heparin alone	Proportion of patients with a modified Rankin score ≤ 2	90 days	25	40	7 (3 to 268)
Episodic cluster headache8	Verapamil vs. placebo	Non-response (= having ≤ 50% reduction in cluster headache attack frequency)	2 weeks	100	20	1 (1 to 2)
Multiple sclerosis (MS)9	Interferon β-1a vs. placebo	Mean change in scores on the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale and the proportion of responders on the Clinical Global Impression Scale	12 weeks	32	66	4 (3 to 5)

References

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1. N Engl J Med 1999 Mar 25;340(12):915-9 
2. Stroke 1997 Oct;28(10):1861-6 
3. Neurology 1998 Feb;50(2):466-70 
4. Stroke 1998 May;29(5):895-9 
5. N Engl J Med 1998 Nov 12;339(20):1415-25 
6. Neurology 1998 Aug;51(2):529-34 
7. BMJ 1998 Jul 25;317(7153):235-40 
8. Neurology. Mar 2000; 54: 1382-5 
9. N Engl J Med. Sept 28, 2000; 343: 898-904