Randomized controlled trials: Often flawed, mostly useless, clearly indispensable: A commentary on Deaton and Cartwright.

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

17 citing papers in PubMed.

1. Embracing complexity in transfusion research.Vox sanguinis · 2026
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2. Challenges with clinical trial participants in studies with classical psychedelics: A position statement from the National Network of Depression Centers' task group on psychedelics and related compounds.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2026
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3. A Comparison of Methods for Testing and Implementing Community Health Interventions in Childhood: A Realist Review.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025
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4. If things were simple, word would have gotten around. Can complexity science help us improve pediatric research?Pediatric research · 2025
   Review
5. Ten years of Women's Wellness research: Key lessons from conducting randomised controlled trials of a whole-of-lifestyle behavioural intervention.Contemporary clinical trials communications · 2025
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6. DESIGN DIFFERENCES EXPLAIN VARIATION IN RESULTS BETWEEN RANDOMIZED TRIALS AND THEIR NON-RANDOMIZED EMULATIONS.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2023
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7. Clinical trials during pandemic in primary care: Low number and low validity after one-year experience.The European journal of general practice · 2021
   Article
8. Common Methodological Problems in Randomized Controlled Trials of Preventive Interventions.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2021
   Review
9. What cannabis can learn from Covid: Hydroxychloroquine research suggests the next step for medical cannabis research.The International journal on drug policy · 2021
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10. A year later.Revista do Colegio Brasileiro de Cirurgioes · 2021
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11. Preserving equipoise and performing randomised trials for COVID-19 social distancing interventions.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2020
    Article
12. Ranking evidence in substance use and addiction.The International journal on drug policy · 2020
    Article
13. Nutrition in times of Covid-19, how to trust the deluge of scientific information.Current opinion in clinical nutrition and metabolic care · 2020
    Review
14. Alternative causal inference methods in population health research: Evaluating tradeoffs and triangulating evidence.SSM - population health · 2020
    Article
15. Five good reasons to be disappointed with randomized trials.The Journal of manual & manipulative therapy · 2019
    Article
16. Decision-based models of the implementation of interventions in systems of healthcare: Implementation outcomes and intervention effectiveness in complex service environments.PloS one · 2019
    Article
17. Re-evaluation of Significance and the Implications of Placebo Effect in Antidepressant Therapy.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019
    Article

Corrections and comments

• Comment on
  Understanding and misunderstanding randomized controlled trials.2018

Authors and funding

1 author.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

Abstract

PubMed holds no abstract for this paper.

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