OBJECTIVES To develop best practice guidance for the use of retention strategies in randomized clinical trials (RCTs). STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING Consensus development workshops conducted at two UK Clinical Trials Units. Sixty-six statisticians, clinicians, RCT coordinators, research scientists, research assistants, and data managers associated with RCTs participated. The consensus development ...

In the present investigation the Randomized Clinical Trial (RCT) is the “gold standard” for evaluating new therapies or strategies in medicine [1]. A low quality in RCTs design or publication, it could lead to an underestimation of the risk or even false, using treatments that may be less or even harmful, and could produce daily clinical practice consequences [2]. So a higher quality in publish...

There is a general agreement that before a therapy can be accepted into widespread clinical use, demonstration of efficacy in randomized clinical trials (RCTs) is absolutely necessary. There are, however, a growing number of experts who believe that demonstration of RCT efficacy might not be a sufficient basis for widespread acceptance.1 RCTs may not enroll subjects representative of patients i...

INTRODUCTION Although classical randomized clinical trials (RCTs) are the gold standard for proof of drug efficacy, randomized discontinuation trials (RDTs), sometimes called "enriched" trials, are used increasingly, especially in psychiatric maintenance studies. METHODS A narrative review of two decades of experience with RDTs. RESULTS RDTs in psychiatric maintenance trials tend to use a d...

OBJECTIVE Although prophylactic antibiotics have been shown by randomized clinical trials (RCTs) to help prevent deep infection after craniotomies, recent reports have suggested that antibiotics are not effective in preventing postcraniotomy meningitis. METHODS Data on meningitis as an end point from RCTs on prophylactic antibiotics for craniotomies were pooled in a random-effects meta-analys...

OBJECTIVE The objective of this systematic review was to assess the effectiveness of yoga as a treatment option for asthma. METHOD Seven databases were searched from their inception to October 2010. Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and non-randomized clinical trials (NRCTs) were considered, if they investigated any type of yoga in patients with asthma. The selection of studies, data extracti...