Methods |
RCT |
Participants |
283 adults, mean age 30 years, mainly Caucasian, 52% women, 3 'centres', USA, common cold |
Interventions |
Antihistamine‐decongestant combination: loratadine 5 mg and pseudoephedrine 120 mg combination twice daily for 5 days |
Outcomes |
Patient diaries, cough score from 0 to 3 |
Notes |
Adverse effects (dry mouth, headache and insomnia) more common in the active treatment group (30%) compared to the placebo group (21%) |
Risk of bias |
Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
Random sequence generation (selection bias) |
Low risk |
Computer‐generated |
Allocation concealment (selection bias) |
Unclear risk |
Not reported |
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias)
All outcomes |
Low risk |
Blinding reported |
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias)
All outcomes |
Low risk |
Overall 92% follow‐up and similar in both groups |
Selective reporting (reporting bias) |
Unclear risk |
Not reported |
Other bias |
Unclear risk |
Multiple comparisons made |