DEVELOPING A DATABASE OF PUBLISHED REPORTS OF RANDOMIZED CLINICAL-TRIALS IN PAIN RESEARCH

A database of randomised clinical trials (RCTs) in pain research publi shed from 1950 to 1990 was created following an extensive literature s earch. By applying a refined MEDLINE search strategy from 1966 to 1990 and by hand-searching more than 1 000 000 pages of a total of 40 biom edical journals published during the period 1950-1990, more than 8000 RCTs were identified. The RCTs were published in more than 800 journal s and over 85% appeared between 1976 and 1990. If the trend of the las t 15 years persists, a total of more than 15 000 RCTs will be publishe d in pain relief by the year 2000. A detailed description of methods t o ensure efficient use of resources during the identification, retriev al and management of the information in pain relief and other fields i s given. Emphasis is made on the importance of refining MEDLINE search strategies, on the use of volunteers to hand-search journals and on c areful monitoring of each of the steps of the process. The potential u ses of the database to guide clinical and research decisions are discu ssed.