Placebo design in WHO-registered trials of Chinese herbal medicine need improvements.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Physical identical and pharmacological inert are the basic requirements for placebo design, which are essential in clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of an intervention. However, it is difficult to makeup a placebo of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) because of special color, taste and smell, etc. Currently, there is no specific requirements and standards for the creation of a CHM-placebo. The purpose of this study is to review the characteristics of the CHM-placebo design and application in registered clinical trials with CHM interventions and identify the common problems, if any.

Methods

The World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) was systematically searched for CHM interventional trials with placebo-controlled

SUBMITTER: Zhang X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6836479 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature