Thinking on the design scheme of clinical trial with the example of migraine treated by acupuncture / 中国针灸

ABSTRACT

Through the examples of explanatory and pragmatic trials on acupuncture for migraine and the comparison between research objectives, experiment environment and trial designs, the design of current clinical trial should focus on (1) Making a point of continuum research on efficacy-effectiveness at trial design type; (2) Thinking highly of therapeutic effect criteria that could have a better show of trial purpose; (3) More use of qualitative research embedded in the randomized controlled trials. With these improvements, the effects of acupuncture could be evaluated more scientifically, objectively and comprehensively.