| 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 |
