[An introduction of the international standard for reporting intervention in clinical trials of acupuncture].
In clinical trials on acupuncture, the description of experimental intervention and controlled treatment are not usually reported adequately, for example, the acupoints and needles used, manipulation applied, duration of treatment, and other ancillary interventions and so on. This would limit the replication of the trial findings and application of the effective therapy. In 2001, an international group of acupuncture researchers discussed the problems in design and reporting of acupuncture clinical trials, and developed a standard for reporting intervention of the controlled clinical trials, abbreviated as 'STRICTA' recommendation, which contains 6 items to describe the rational of treatment, needling details, treatment regimen, co-interventions, practitioner' s background, and control intervention. This essay intends to introduce the standard and take two internationally published randomized trials of acupuncture as examples to illustrate the details.
Liu
Jian-ping
JP
National Research Center in Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Norway. jpliutcm@yahoo.co.uk
D015670:Acupuncture Therapy / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000592:standards*