BACKGROUND AND AIMS Psychodynamic psychotherapy (PDT) is an effective treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD), but not all clients with MDD can receive psychotherapy. Using the Internet to provide psychodynamic treatments is one way of improving access to psychological treatments for MDD. The aim of this randomised controlled trial was to investigate the efficacy of an Internet-based psyc...

BACKGROUND Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is now considered the first option for gallbladder surgery. However, 20% to 30% of cholecystectomies are completed as open operations often on elderly and fragile patients. The external validity of randomised trials comparing mini-laparotomy cholecystectomy and laparoscopic cholecystectomy has not been studied. The aim of this study is to analyse characte...

BACKGROUND Failure to retain participants in randomised controlled trials and longitudinal studies can cause significant methodological problems. We report the recruitment and retention strategies of a randomised controlled trial to promote fire-related injury prevention in families with pre-school children attending children's centres in disadvantaged areas in England. METHODS Thirty-six chi...

BACKGROUND Posterior Heel pain can present in children of 8 to 14 years, associated with or clinically diagnosed as Sever's disease, or calcaneal apophysitis. Presently, there are no comparative randomised studies evaluating treatment options for posterior heel pain in children with the clinical diagnosis of calcaneal apophysitis or Sever's disease. This study seeks to compare the clinical effi...

BACKGROUND Problem drinkers have poor inhibitory control (disinhibition). Previous studies have demonstrated that various forms of 'inhibition training' can reduce alcohol consumption in the laboratory and at short-term follow-up, but their longer-term efficacy and mechanisms of action are unknown. In this phase 2 randomised controlled trial we will contrast the effects of three forms of inhibi...

BACKGROUND Perinatal asphyxia is, even in developed countries, one the major causes of neonatal morbidity and mortality. Therefore, if foetal distress during labour is suspected, one should try to restore foetal oxygen levels or aim for immediate delivery. However, studies on the effect of intrauterine resuscitation during labour are scarce. We designed a randomised controlled trial to investig...

TRIAL DESIGN A pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial. METHODS PARTICIPANTS Clusters were primary health care clinics on the Ministry of Health list. Clients were eligible if they were aged 18 and over. INTERVENTIONS Two members of staff from each intervention clinic received the training programme. Clients in both intervention and control clinics subsequently received normal rout...

Objective General anaesthesia with tracheal intubation results in sore throat. We evaluated the influence of two-handed jaw thrust on postoperative throat patients who require intubation. Methods In this prospective, double-blind, single-centre, parallel-arm, and randomised trial, 92 were scheduled for general total hip arthroplasty allocated to one two groups. group (n = 46), manoeuvre was app...