This topic has come up in Question 8(p.2) from the first paper of 2008 and the identical Question 6 from the first paper of 2014. These SAQs are duplicates of question b(5) from the 2004 ANZCA primary. In 2014 the examiner's comments were basically just a series of complaints about the poor quality of candidate ("just can't get good candidates these days"). Fortunately, in 2008 the college offered some guidance as to what was expected.
The candidates would have scored highly by discussing the following issues:
The LITFL page on randomised controlled trials is an excellent breakdown of what would be relevant to a good detailed answer. Their lists of "strengths" and "weaknesses" could be reproduced by the candidate within the timeframe of a single SAQ, and would offer a good chance of a very high mark. This chapter is in essence a series of footnotes to that LITFL article.
So, in brief exam-oriented summary:
Advantages of randomised control trial study design:
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Disadvantages of randomised control trial study design
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The best non-LITFL resources for this sort of thing mainly come from LITFL anyway, and consist of the references offered by Chris Nickson at the end of his article.
Statistical methods for anaesthesia and intensive care (P S Myles, T Gin - 1st ed - Oxford : Butterworth-Heinemann, 2001)
Ospina-Tascón, Gustavo A., Gustavo Luiz Büchele, and Jean-Louis Vincent. "Multicenter, randomized, controlled trials evaluating mortality in intensive care: doomed to fail?." Critical care medicine 36.4 (2008): 1311-1322.
Smith, Gordon CS, and Jill P. Pell. "Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge: systematic review of randomised controlled trials." BMJ: British Medical Journal 327.7429 (2003): 1459.
Vincent, Jean-Louis. "We should abandon randomized controlled trials in the intensive care unit." Critical care medicine 38.10 (2010): S534-S538.
Hébert, Paul C., et al. "The design of randomized clinical trials in critically ill patients." CHEST Journal 121.4 (2002): 1290-1300.
Jadad, Alejandro R., and Murray Enkin. Randomized controlled trials: questions, answers, and musings. Blackwell Pub., 2007.
Walker, Wendy. "The strengths and weaknesses of research designs involving quantitative measures." Journal of research in nursing 10.5 (2005): 571-582.
Sanson-Fisher, Robert William, et al. "Limitations of the randomized controlled trial in evaluating population-based health interventions." American journal of preventive medicine 33.2 (2007): 155-161.
Levin, Kate Ann. "Study design VII. Randomised controlled trials." Evidence-based dentistry 8.1 (2007): 22-23.
Efird, Jimmy. "Blocked randomization with randomly selected block sizes." International journal of environmental research and public health 8.1 (2010): 15-20.
Stang, Andreas. "Randomized controlled trials—an indispensible part of clinical research." Deutsches Ärzteblatt International 108.39 (2011): 661.
Singal, Amit G., Peter DR Higgins, and Akbar K. Waljee. "A primer on effectiveness and efficacy trials." Clinical and translational gastroenterology 5.1 (2014): e45.