Ethical considerations in randomized controlled clinical trials

EDICAL PROGRESS requires well-designed and M carefully conducted clinical trials. Such trials may hasten the introduction of truly beneficial therapies while preventing the misuse of nonbeneficial therapies.',* Randomized controlled trials (RCT) are, in most cases, the type of clinical trial that is most likely to yield reliable and reproducible clinical knowledge quickly and effi-~i e n t l y . ~ This is because the RCT is the study design least susceptible to methodologic error.4 Study designs using either historic controls or nonrandomized study groups may be plagued by bias which can lead to inaccurate re-sUlts.5,6