Abstracts

Rationale: The double blind placebo controlled randomized controlled trial is the gold standard for evidence for interventions in medicine. We aim to determine the rates of publication of randomized clinical trial abstracts submitted to multiple annual meetings of the American Epilepsy Society between 2000 and 2008. We also assessed characteristics of reporting of these abstracts per the CONSORT statement. Methods: Using the online search engine available at the abstracts website of the American Epilepsy Society, we searched for all abstracts with the key words "randomized controlled". A total of 57 abstracts were found between 2000 and 2008. Abstracts that were systematic reviews of RCTs (n=3) and studies pooled data from more than two different RCTs (n=2) were excluded. Publication information was obtained by using the National Library of Medicine's website: pubmed.com. Publication status was established by searching the website using first author name, last author name and key words taken from abstract title. The cut-off date for publication searches was June 2012. Results: Of the 52 abstracts analyzed, 62.7% were published at this time. Six abstracts did not state a clear objective and only 34 defined a distinct primary outcome within the abstract. 13% of the abstracts were conducted in more than 2 centers and 33% were designed to study a clinical endpoint. The median duration of these trials were 26 weeks (IQR=21). The median time to publication of abstracts was 15+ 15 weeks. Clinical endpoints, clarity of stating of objectives or results, funding status or duration of trials were not associated with publication success. Conclusions: There is a paucity of RCTs in the field of epilepsy, atleast as presented at this national meeting. However once presented in abstract form, it is encouraging that the majority of studies are published fully. Word restrictions impose difficulties in reporting abstracts in detail, as recommended by the CONSORT guideline. Unfortunately, a majority of RCTs presented at this meeting are designed to study surrogate endpoints and there are no clear signals indicating the fate of these abstracts with respect to future publication.