Boyle Gregory J
University of Melbourne, Australia.
J Clin Transl Res. 2018 Mar 25;3(Suppl 2):375-381. eCollection 2018 Jul 30.
Ullmann et al. recently published a pilot study in Translational Psychiatry in which they report failing to find a statistically significant reduction in either hair cortisol or hair cortisone levels in circumcised men as compared with genitally intact (noncircumcised) men. Based on such null findings, the authors purport to have "refuted the psycho-pathological long-term effects of circumcision" and that the lack of significant results, "add to the growing body of evidence in the literature that male circumcision is not likely psychologically traumatizing across the life-span." In addition, they claim that they have proven a "healthy functionality of the LHPA axis" in men subjected to circumcision during infancy or childhood. However, it is not possible to draw any such conclusions on the basis of a null finding, especially one derived from an underpowered study in which the trend in the data suggest, if anything, that an adequately powered study may have shown the opposite of what the authors claim.
When combined with other weaknesses in study design, measurement, and interpretation, it becomes apparent that the authors' conclusions are not supported by their data.
乌尔曼等人最近在《转化精神病学》杂志上发表了一项初步研究，他们报告称，与未行包皮环切术（阴茎完整）的男性相比，行包皮环切术的男性的头发皮质醇或头发可的松水平均未出现统计学上的显著降低。基于这些阴性结果，作者声称“驳斥了包皮环切术的长期心理病理学影响”，且缺乏显著结果“进一步证明了文献中越来越多的证据，即男性包皮环切术在一生中不太可能造成心理创伤”。此外，他们声称已经证明在婴儿期或儿童期接受包皮环切术的男性中，下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴（LHPA轴）具有“健康的功能”。然而，基于阴性结果不可能得出任何此类结论，尤其是来自一项样本量不足的研究的结果，在该研究中，数据趋势表明，如果有足够的样本量，研究结果可能与作者声称的相反。
当与研究设计、测量和解释方面的其他缺陷相结合时，很明显作者的数据并不支持他们的结论。
