Blinding successfulness in antipsychotic trials of acute treatment for schizophrenia: a systematic review

Background

Blinding of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) is very important for the accurate assessment of drug efficacy. Without proper blinding, the effect of the intervention may be overestimated. Fergusson et al investigated the top journals in psychiatry from 1998 to 2001 and reported that blinding assessments were conducted in only 8 of 94 studies across psychiatric disorders.1 However, no studies on antipsychotic drugs were included among these eight. Hróbjartsson et al investigated RCTs published in 2001, and blinding assessments were conducted in 12 psychiatric studies.2 There were only two studies on antipsychotics but these did not focus on schizophrenia. Baethge et al searched for studies on schizophrenia and affective disorders from 2000 to 2010 to assess whether blinding was appropriately performed.3 Only 5 of the 672 schizophrenia studies, including those on pharmacotherapies and physical therapies, reported blinding assessment, and studies on schizophrenia…