[Clinical trials in bronchial asthma].
Most of the clinical trials with new drugs on the treatment of asthma are carried out in well selected patients who are not representative of a very clinically heterogeneous disease, with periodic controls differing from those normally undertake in the general practice and specialist consultations. The clinical trials are usually performed over very short periods of time while the normal pharmacologic treatment of asthma requires prolonged treatment. The external validity of these studies is unknown but it is probably not comparable to internal validity. To improve the quality of the clinical trials on asthma, studies should be carried out on patients representing the global population in conditions which are closer to those of the real world and during prolonged periods of time.
Servei de Pneumologia i Al.lergia Respiratòria, Hospital Clínic, Barcelona.
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D001249:Asthma / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results