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Decline In Placebo-Controlled Trial Results Suggests New Directions For Comparative Effectiveness Research.
- Source :
-
Health Affairs . Jun2013, Vol. 32 Issue 6, p1116-1125. 10p. 1 Diagram, 3 Charts. - Publication Year :
- 2013
-
Abstract
- The Affordable Care Act offers strong support for comparative effectiveness research, which entails comparisons among active treatments, to provide the foundation for evidence-based practice. Traditionally, a key form of research into the effectiveness of therapeutic treatments has been placebo-controlled trials, in which a specified treatment is compared to placebo. These trials feature high-contrast comparisons between treatments. Historical trends in placebo-controlled trials have been evaluated to help guide the comparative effectiveness research agenda. We investigated placebo-controlled trials reported in four leading medical journals between 1966 and 2010. We found that there was a significant decline in average effect size or average difference in efficacy (the ability to produce a desired effect) between the active treatment and placebo. On average, recently studied treatments offered only small benefits in efficacy over placebo. A decline in effect sizes in conventional placebo-controlled trials supports an increased emphasis on other avenues of research, including comparative studies on the safety, tolerability, and cost of treatments with established efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *COMPARATIVE studies
*MEDICAL literature -- History & criticism
*CLINICAL trials
*CONFIDENCE intervals
*EXPERIMENTAL design
*LONGITUDINAL method
*HEALTH outcome assessment
*PLACEBOS
*RESEARCH
*RESEARCH funding
*LOGISTIC regression analysis
*EFFECT sizes (Statistics)
*TREATMENT effectiveness
*DESCRIPTIVE statistics
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 02782715
- Volume :
- 32
- Issue :
- 6
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Health Affairs
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 88056281
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2012.1353