This leads to an intervention that was widely used falling out of favor, because new evidence either demonstrates that it is ineffective or that its harms exceed its benefits.
It is distinct from replacement, which occurs when a newly developed medical treatment supersedes an older, less effective one as the standard of care.
[1] Medical reversals are caused when a treatment is widely adopted even when there is not compelling evidence for its safety and effectiveness.
For example, an intervention may be adopted because it "makes sense", or because there are observational studies supporting its putative benefits.
[5][6] A 2011 study of one year of original New England Journal of Medicine publications found that 13% of them constituted medical reversals.