Blinding and intention to treat

We have looked at the importance of randomisation to ensure that the RCT is not subject to selection bias. We'll now consider how trials can protect themselves from performance bias, ascertainment bias and attrition bias.

There may be perfectly good reasons why it may not be possible to mask all the participants in a trial, such as when treatments require careful monitoring, and we should be wary of needlessly dismissing potentially important research.

By looking at the sequence of events in research, and applying common sense alongside clinical knowledge, we can hope to strike the right balance.