Denial of effective treatment and poor quality of clinical information in placebo controlled trials of @entity3974 for XXXX : a review of published trials.

@entity1 @entity3974 @entity1209
OBJECTIVE: To determine how many @entity1 were deprived of treatment by being given placebo as comparator in trials of @entity3974 for @entity1209 . DESIGN: Review of published trials of @entity3974 during 1991 to July 1994. SETTING: Medline search in a university department of anaesthesia. SUBJECTS: 8806 @entity1 who had been included in 18 indexed placebo controlled trials of @entity3974 as prophylaxis against or treatment of @entity1209 . RESULTS: Five studies (1236 @entity1 ) had been published by July 1992. All were placebo controlled trials. By July 1994, 8806 @entity1 had been included in 18 indexed placebo controlled studies of prophylaxis or treatment. Only 462 @entity1 had been in studies that compared @entity3974 with other drugs, and there were no indexed comparative trials of treatment of @entity1209 . Roughly 2180 @entity1 had been given placebo as prophylaxis and 440 had been given placebo when already experiencing @entity1209 . CONCLUSIONS: Around 2620 @entity1 in the reviewed studies were denied existing drugs, which, though not completely effective or without side effects, do bring some relief from @entity1209 . Drug regulatory bodies should collaborate with drug companies to ensure better comparison of new with established drugs. This would avoid placebos being given to more than the fewest @entity1 necessary to confirm effect and would allow doctors to be informed more quickly about relative efficacies.
