The Role of the Pragmatic Trial in the Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Acupuncture
Item
Title
The Role of the Pragmatic Trial in the Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Acupuncture
Description
EJOM (2006), Nester, Barry.
Abstract
This paper examines the role of the ‘pragmatic trial’ (PT) in the evaluation of the effectiveness of acupuncture. In a PT, the therapeutic effectiveness of a therapy can be evaluated by comparing it with other therapies and/or ‘standard care’ (i.e. the pharmaceutical drug or therapy that is routinely used to treat the condition being studied). The PT provides a method to determine the ‘relative’ therapeutic effectiveness of therapies such as acupuncture for a particular condition or syndrome by comparing it with the effectiveness of other therapies. One strength of using the PT to evaluate the effectiveness of traditional acupuncture is that the ‘sham acupuncture’ control can in some cases be omitted, thereby avoiding any possible ethical concerns regarding participant deception and/or participants not receiving and ‘active’ treatment.
Alternative Title
EJOM
Creator
Date
Date Created
2/26/2015
Language
English
Type
Journal Article
issn
1351-6647
issue
3
volume
5