Research Design Characteristics of Published Pharmacologic Randomized Clinical Trials for Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Chronic Pelvic Pain Conditions: An ACTTION Systematic Review
Chronic pain conditions occurring in the lower abdomen and pelvis are common, often challenging to manage, and can negatively affect health-related quality of life. Methodological challenges in designing randomized clinical trials (RCTs) for these conditions likely contributes to the limited number of available treatments. The goal of this systematic review of RCTs of pharmacologic treatments for irritable bowel syndrome and 3 common chronic pelvic pain conditions are to (1) summarize the primary endpoints and entry criteria and (2) evaluate the clarity of reporting of important methodological details. In total, 127 RCTs were included in the analysis. The most common inclusion criteria were a minimum pain duration (81%), fulfilling an established diagnostic criteria (61%), and reporting a minimum pain intensity (42%). Primary endpoints were identified for only (57%) of trials. These endpoints, summarized in this article, were highly variable. The results of this systematic review can be used to inform future research to optimize the entry criteria and outcome measures for pain conditions occurring in the lower abdomen and pelvis, to increase transparency in reporting to allow for proper interpretation of RCT results for clinical and policy applications, and to facilitate the aggregation of data in meta-analyses.
This article summarizes entry criteria and outcome measures and the clarity of reporting of these important design features in RCTs of IBS and 3 common chronic pelvic pain conditions. These results can be used to improve design of future trials of these largely unaddressed pain conditions.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 09 February 2018.
All research outputs
#31,221,391
of 34,404,538 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Pain
#3,112
of 3,233 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#438,473
of 491,814 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Pain
#52
of 55 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,404,538 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,233 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 17.3. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 491,814 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 55 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
