Recommendations for Reporting Randomized Controlled Trials of Herbal Medicine Interventions

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are considered the highest level of evidence for efcacy in healthcare; carefully planned and well-executed RCTs give us the best estimates of treatment effect and RCTs frequently in¤uence clinical decision making (Mulrow et al., 1998; Sackett et al., 1998; Altman et al., 2001). But, trials that lack methodological rigor may cause over-or underestimations of treatment effect sizes

12.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 197 12.2 CONSORT Elaborations for Trials of Herbal Interventions ........................ 199

12.2.1 Title and Abstract ............................................................................. 199 12.2.2 Introduction ......................................................................................206