Methods of blinding clinical trials in physiotherapy

Blinding of scientific clinical trials prevents the influence of subjective expectations of the participants on the results. It is done by ensuring their lack of knowledge whether they are administered a given medical technology or not. Blinding a randomised controlled clinical trial in physiotherapy is difficult, and sometimes impossible, in particular where the patient is aware of the procedure and experiences certain sensations during it, as in electrotherapy. Researchers were met halfway by the equipment manufacturers for physical therapy. Already there are magnetostimulation devices with a “placebo” setting being produces, and yellow light-bulbs to install in pilerotherapy lamps. Sham ultrasound can be used as placebo (by placing the transducer against the skin without turning on the device). Both in physical therapy and kinesiotherapy, it is possible to single-blind the trial - when one person performs the procedure, and someone else evaluates its results. It is advisable that the evaluator should not belong to the team performing treatment and therefore not know whether the patient received the intervention or placebo. Where it is impossible to either single- or double-blind the trial, an open-label trial may be employed. In this demonstrative-review article, the present-day capabilities of blinding clinical data in physiotherapy.