ArticleForensic science international. Synergy2023
Why admitted cases of AHT make a low quality reference standard: A survey of people accused of AHT in France.
Article in Forensic science international. Synergy, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Fractures in suspected child abuse: A critical review of the evidence cited by the American Academy of Pediatrics and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.Forensic science international. Synergy · 2026Article
- Spread of "triad diagnostics" in suspected Shaken Baby Syndrome.Forensic science international. Synergy · 2026Article
- A critical review of the American Academy of Pediatrics technical report on abusive head trauma.Forensic science international. Synergy · 2025Review
- Pathophysiological hypotheses of the triad in abusive infant shaking: A systematic review and analysis of corroborated cases.Forensic science international. Synergy · 2025Article
- Shaken Baby Syndrome/Abusive Head Injury: The Role of Expert Witness Testimony and a Recent Case Development.Journal of bioethical inquiry · 2025Article
- Witnessing abusive head trauma: Accidents show higher rates of intracranial pathologies than shaking.Annals of the Child Neurology Society · 2024Article
- Retino-dural hemorrhages in infants are markers of degree of intracranial pathology, not of violent shaking.Annals of the Child Neurology Society · 2024Article
- Evidence for significant misdiagnosis of abusive head trauma in pediBIRN data.Forensic science international. Synergy · 2023Article
- Confessions in AHT cases are unreliable: A letter to the editor.Forensic science international. Synergy · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Several influential articles that attempt to establish diagnostic methods for Abusive Head Trauma (AHT) use admitted cases as a reference standard. This study analyses a survey of people accused of AHT in France, to understand the environment and situations in which such admissions are made. Multiple reasons to question the reliability of admissions to AHT are demonstrated in the responses, including reduced sentences, the return of children to the family home, a desire to stop accusations being leveled at a partner and for legal proceedings to end. These factors must be considered in the context of proceedings that are long, expensive and stressful, leading to depression and financial hardship, and that seem to be inevitably heading towards conviction. The ineluctable conclusion is that admitted cases do not make a suitably reliable reference standard for undertaking scientific investigation, or for validating the diagnostic methods used for AHT.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.