TY - JOUR
T1 - Methodological issues and complementary therapies
T2 - Researching intangibles?
AU - Carter, Bernie
PY - 2003/8
Y1 - 2003/8
N2 - The increasing drive to adopt evidence-based practice within the mainstream health service creates a sense of urgency for high quality, rigorous research to support CAM. The RCT is seen as the gold standard for allopathic research. However, the tenets of the RCT cannot simply be just picked up and applied to CAM research. Critics of the RCT propose that it fractures and fragments the essence of many complementary therapies. Challenges including standardisation, blinding, randomisation, practitioner influence, placebos, and controls are explored and some possible solutions are presented. CAM researchers need to be creative so that they capture some of the intangibles that currently slip through the reductionist net of the RCT.
AB - The increasing drive to adopt evidence-based practice within the mainstream health service creates a sense of urgency for high quality, rigorous research to support CAM. The RCT is seen as the gold standard for allopathic research. However, the tenets of the RCT cannot simply be just picked up and applied to CAM research. Critics of the RCT propose that it fractures and fragments the essence of many complementary therapies. Challenges including standardisation, blinding, randomisation, practitioner influence, placebos, and controls are explored and some possible solutions are presented. CAM researchers need to be creative so that they capture some of the intangibles that currently slip through the reductionist net of the RCT.
KW - Challenges
KW - Complementary therapies
KW - Methodology
KW - Research
KW - Rigour
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0038795073&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0038795073&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/S1353-6117(03)00042-8
DO - 10.1016/S1353-6117(03)00042-8
M3 - Article (journal)
C2 - 12852929
AN - SCOPUS:0038795073
SN - 1353-6117
VL - 9
SP - 133
EP - 139
JO - Complementary Therapies in Nursing and Midwifery
JF - Complementary Therapies in Nursing and Midwifery
IS - 3
ER -