Journal Top Ten, COLUMNS-Mold, September 2005

ARTICLE: "Cognitive impairment associated with toxigenic fungal exposure: a critique and critical analysis"

SUMMARY: Recently Gordon et al. (2004) reported the results of a study relating exposure to toxigenic fungi to cognitive impairment. A number of methodological problems limit the utility of this study, including the authors' not examining a number of potential confounding variables, use of a mild traumatic brain injury group as a comparison, and problematic statistical analyses increasing the Type 1 error rate. Based on these limitations, the authors' conclusion that mold-exposed people have more cognitive and physical …