ReviewJournal of clinical epidemiology2013
Single-patient (n-of-1) trials: a pragmatic clinical decision methodology for patient-centered comparative effectiveness research.
Review in Journal of clinical epidemiology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 118 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
118 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- N-of-1 Randomized Intervention Trials in Health Psychology: A Systematic Review and Methodology Critique.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2018Pooled it
- Application of n-of-1 treatment trials in schizophrenia: systematic review.The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science · 2018Pooled it
- N-of-1 trials in the clinical care of patients in developing countries: a systematic review.Trials · 2018Pooled it
- A Series of Personalized Melatonin Supplement Interventions for Poor Sleep: Feasibility Randomized Crossover Trial for Personalized N-of-1 Treatment.JMIR formative research · 2025Trial
- Effects of a cannabidiol/terpene formulation on sleep in individuals with insomnia: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, crossover study.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2025Trial
- Individualising care in severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia: a series of N-of-1 trials comparing transpyloric and gastric feeding.Archives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition · 2020Trial
- A Randomized Placebo-ControlledCanadian journal of gastroenterology & hepatology · 2019Trial
- Effect of Mobile Device-Supported Single-Patient Multi-crossover Trials on Treatment of Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA internal medicine · 2018Trial
- N-of-1 Randomized Trials of Ultra-Micronized Palmitoylethanolamide in Older Patients with Chronic Pain.Drugs & aging · 2017Trial
- In vivo and in vitro ivacaftor response in cystic fibrosis patients with residual CFTR function: N-of-1 studies.Pediatric pulmonology · 2017Trial
- Trial
- Trial
- Efficacy of galactose and adalimumab in patients with resistant focal segmental glomerulosclerosis: report of the font clinical trial group.BMC nephrology · 2015Trial
- Trial
- Strengthening Rural Health With N-of-1 Trials and Single-Case Experimental Designs.The Australian journal of rural health · 2026Article
- A fatal pediatric case of febrile ulceronecrotic Mucha-Habermann disease: diagnostic and therapeutic challenges: a case report.Journal of medical case reports · 2026Article
- Addressing the needs of nano-rare patients: the n-Lorem experience.Nucleic acids research · 2026Review
- Article
- N-of-1 trials in clinical research: Methodological foundations, statistical approaches and implementation challenges.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2026Review
- Instrumental variable approach to estimating individual causal effects in N-of-1 trials: application to ISTOP study.Biostatistics (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
58 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo raise awareness among clinicians and epidemiologists that single-patient (n-of-1) trials are potentially useful for informing personalized treatment decisions for patients with chronic conditions. STUDY DESIGN AND
settingWe reviewed the clinical and statistical literature on methods and applications of single-patient trials and then critically evaluated the needs for further methodological developments.
resultsExisting literature reports application of 2,154 single-patient trials in 108 studies for diverse clinical conditions; various recent commentaries advocate for wider application of such trials in clinical decision making. Preliminary evidence from several recent pilot acceptability studies suggests that single-patient trials have the potential for widespread acceptance by patients and clinicians as an effective modality for increasing the therapeutic precision. Bayesian and adaptive statistical methods hold promise for increasing the informational yield of single-patient trials while reducing participant burden, but are not widely used. Personalized applications of single-patient trials can be enhanced through further development and application of methodologies on adaptive trial design, stopping rules, network meta-analysis, washout methods, and methods for communicating trial findings to patients and clinicians.
conclusionsSingle-patient trials may be poised to emerge as an important part of the methodological armamentarium for comparative effectiveness research and patient-centered outcomes research. By permitting direct estimation of individual treatment effects, they can facilitate finely graded individualized care, enhance therapeutic precision, improve patient outcomes, and reduce costs.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.