"A clinical trial in which the subjects are randomly distributed into groups which are either subjected to the experimental procedure (as use of a drug) or which serve as controls —called also randomized clinical trial" (Merriam-Webster, 2016).
As with all other studies, one strategy to finding randomized controlled trials is to add the study type to your search string. See example below:
antihypertensives AND "blood pressure" AND "randomized controlled trial"
In addition, there are a few other things you can do while searching individual databases as shown below.
CINAHL and Medline are databases that allow you to limit your search results to randomized controlled trials only.
To find randomized controlled trials in CINAHL or Medline, follow the steps below:
To find randomized controlled trials in PubMed, follow the steps below:
Note! With any of these searches, you will need to limit to full text to get articles immediately available to you.
Merriam Webster. (2016). Randomized controlled trial. In Merriam-Webster (Ed.), Merriam Webster's Medical Dictionary. Merriam-Webster.
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