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Randomized Controlled Trials

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Encyclopedia of Psychopharmacology

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Synonyms

Controlled clinical trials; Randomized clinical trials

Definition

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are studies in which people are allocated at random (by chance alone) to receive one of two or more treatments. People who take part in an RCT are called participants (or subjects). The Consolidated Statement of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) provides readers of RCTs with a list of criteria that will be useful to assess trial validity (for full details, visit www.consort-statement.org) (Altman 1996).

As quantitative, comparative studies, RCTs are one of the simplest and most powerful tools in clinical research. In the field of medicine, RCTs are recognized as the most rigorous method of assessing the efficacy of interventions and are designed to determine whether an association exists between treatment and outcome (Rees 1997). RCTs essentially provide evidence of causality. These clinical studies point to a link between events rather than an explanation of how or why these events...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine and Public Health, Section of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, Policlinico GB Rossi, University of Verona, Piazzale Scuro 10, Verona, Veneto, 37134, Italy

    Andrea Cipriani

  2. Warneford Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX3 7JX, UK

    John Geddes

Authors
  1. Andrea Cipriani
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  2. John Geddes
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrea Cipriani .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Behavioural Pharmacology, King's College London Institute of Psychiatry P049, London, United Kingdom

    Ian P. Stolerman

  2. Brown Medical School, Butler Hospital, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

    Lawrence H. Price

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© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Cipriani, A., Geddes, J. (2014). Randomized Controlled Trials. In: Stolerman, I., Price, L. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychopharmacology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27772-6_375-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27772-6_375-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27772-6

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