Volume 10, Issue 3 (10-2022)                   Jorjani Biomed J 2022, 10(3): 61-69 | Back to browse issues page

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Javadi-Pashaki N, Mehrabi H, Asdaghijahromi I, Taheri Otaghsara S M, Ghazanfari M J, Ghorbani Vajargah P, et al . Methodological and Ethical Challenges for the Implementation of Complementary and Alternative Medicine-Related Clinical Trials: Review of Reviews. Jorjani Biomed J 2022; 10 (3) :61-69
URL: http://goums.ac.ir/jorjanijournal/article-1-883-en.html
1- 1. Social Determinants of Health Research Center (SDHRC), Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran/ 2. Department of Nursing, Cardiovascular Diseases Research Center, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran
2- Student Research Committee, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran
3- Department of Anesthesiology, Faculty of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran
4- Student Research Committee, Nasibeh School of Nursing and Midwifery, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran
5- Department of Medical-Surgical Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran
6- Department of Medical-Surgical Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran
7- Department of Biostatistics, School of Health, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran
8- Department of Geriatrics, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran
9- 1. Department of Medical-Surgical Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran/ 2. Burn and Regenerative Medicine Research Center, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran , sami.karkhah@yahoo.com
Abstract:   (2203 Views)
Background and Objectives: The implementation of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) has increased in recent decades. Due to the positive effects of CAM interventions, 5 to 74.8% of people use these treatments worldwide. However, implementing CAM-related clinical trials is associated with challenging issues. Failure to address these challenges can lead to poor quality of studies, publication of non-scientific findings, and ultimately disregard for human rights and ethics. This review aims to comprehensively review the literature focusing on methodological and ethical challenges for implementing CAM-related clinical trials.
Material and Methods: This review of reviews was conducted via international databases, including PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Scopus using keywords extracted from medical subject headings such as “Methods”, “Methodological Study”, “Methodological Studies”, “Ethics”, “Complementary Therapies”, “Complementary Medicine”, “Alternative Medicine”, “Clinical Trial”, and “review” from the earliest to May 1, 2022.
Results: In general, challenging issues for the implementation of CAM-related clinical trials can be divided into two categories: 1) methodological and 2) ethical. Methodological challenges included: Risk of bias, Lack of knowledge of researchers, and Blinding. On the other hand, ethical challenges in clinical trial studies are divided into two categories: patients' rights and placebo use.
Conclusion: Overall, the present study emphasizes the need for special attention to the quality of CAM-related clinical trials. Also, this study can pioneer the introduction of critical challenging issues in CAM-related clinical trials and provide appropriate suggestions for researchers to solve these issues in future studies.


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Type of Article: Review Article | Subject: General medicine
Received: 2022/01/24 | Accepted: 2022/09/10 | Published: 2022/10/2

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