| Methods |
Design: three group parallel trial
Purpose: to study the effect of auricular acupuncture for alcohol dependence |
| Participants |
Patients: in‐patients with alcohol dependence
Baseline comparability: yes (age, gender) |
| Interventions |
Placebo: needling on sites not regarded acupuncture sites
Untreated: no needling
Experimental: needling on sites regarded acupuncture sites
(Co‐intervention: conventional alcohol dependence treatment according to the 'Minnesota Model') |
| Outcomes |
Alcohol use (Timeline Follow‐back)
Addiction severity index (ASI)
Alcohol dependence scale
Breathalyzer
Alcohol desire (5‐point Likert scale)
Health status (SF36 and Medical status composite score part of ASI)
Beck depression inventory
Self‐rating anxiety scale |
| Notes |
Outcome not reported so that meta‐analysis is possible. |
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Adequate sequence generation? |
Unclear risk |
NS |
| Allocation concealment? |
Unclear risk |
NS |
| Blinding?
Treatment provider |
Unclear risk |
NS |
| Blinding?
Outcome assessor |
Unclear risk |
Not relevant as patient reported outcome |
| Incomplete outcome data addressed?
All outcomes |
High risk |
Drop‐out > 15% or NS |
| Free of selective reporting? |
High risk |
Outcome not reported so that meta‐analysis is possible. |
| Free of other bias? |
Low risk |
|
| Trial size > 49? |
Low risk |
N = 267 |
| Clearly concealed allocation + trial size > 49 + drop‐out max 15% |
High risk |
Drop‐out > 15% or NS |
