TY - JOUR AU - Schreijenberg, M. AU - Luijsterburg, P. A. J. AU - Van Trier, Y. D. M. AU - Rizopoulos, D. AU - Koopmanschap, M. A. AU - Voogt, L. AU - Maher, C. G. AU - Koes, B. W. PY - 2018 DA - 2018/05/14 TI - Discontinuation of the PACE Plus trial: problems in patient recruitment in general practice JO - BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders SP - 146 VL - 19 IS - 1 AB - The PACE Plus trial was a multi-center, double-blinded, superiority randomized controlled trial (RCT) conducted in patients from Dutch general practice to investigate the efficacy of paracetamol and NSAIDs in acute non-specific low back pain (LBP). Because insufficient numbers of patients could be recruited (only four out of the required 800 patients could be recruited over a period of 6 months), the trial was prematurely terminated in February 2017, 6 months after the start of recruitment. This article aims to transparently communicate the discontinuation of PACE Plus and to make recommendations for future studies. SN - 1471-2474 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12891-018-2063-1 DO - 10.1186/s12891-018-2063-1 ID - Schreijenberg2018 ER -