786 Several years ago, Philip Poole-Wilson issued a warning that too many cardiovascular trials use composite end-points and that this can seriously distort their conclusions.The warning has been repeated many times since, but does it still happen? You bet it does, but you will find more about current practice in the editorial than in this systematic review which only covers certain journals from Jan 2002 to June 2003. Still, this paper is good for categorising variability of effect according to importance to patients.

Most people exposed to intensely traumatic events recover sufficiently to get on with life; otherwise Europe, Russia, China and Japan would have ceased to exist after 1945. But many are scarred and some remain incapacitated by post traumatic stress disorder. Here is a clear and pragmatic account of our present state of understanding and the current NICE guideline.