Trial reportThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2022
Colchicine for COVID-19 in the community (PRINCIPLE): a randomised, controlled, adaptive platform trial.
Trial report in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of sample size determination in Bayesian randomized clinical trials: full Bayesian methods are rarely used.BMC medical research methodology · 2026Pooled it
- Drug treatments for mild or moderate covid-19: systematic review and network meta-analysis.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2025Pooled it
- Colchicine for the treatment of patients with COVID-19: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.BMJ open · 2024Pooled it
- Comparison of Preprint Postings of Randomized Clinical Trials on COVID-19 and Corresponding Published Journal Articles: A Systematic Review.JAMA network open · 2023Pooled it
- The effect of colchicine on mortality outcome and duration of hospital stay in patients with COVID-19: A meta-analysis of randomized trials.Immunity, inflammation and disease · 2022Pooled it
- Oral Nirmatrelvir-Ritonavir for Covid-19 in Higher-Risk Outpatients.The New England journal of medicine · 2026Trial
- Ivermectin for COVID-19 in adults in the community (PRINCIPLE): An open, randomised, controlled, adaptive platform trial of short- and longer-term outcomes.The Journal of infection · 2024Trial
- The Efficacy of Colchicine as an Adjunct Therapy in Non-hospitalized COVID-19 Patients: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial.Recent advances in anti-infective drug discovery · 2024Trial
- Molnupiravir plus usual care versus usual care alone as early treatment for adults with COVID-19 at increased risk of adverse outcomes (PANORAMIC): an open-label, platform-adaptive randomised controlled trial.Lancet (London, England) · 2023Trial
- Treatment with COLchicine in hospitalized patients affected by COVID-19: The COLVID-19 trial.European journal of internal medicine · 2023Trial
- FRAGILE-COLCOVID19: A Clinical Trial Based on Early Administration of an Oral Combination of Colchicine and Prednisone in Elderly Patients with COVID-19 in Geriatric Facilities.Clinical drug investigation · 2022Trial
- Bayesian analysis in confirmatory clinical trials: A narrative review and discussion of current practice.Clinical trials (London, England) · 2026Review
- Assessing the Impact of Colchicine on Pulmonary Fibrosis Using Imaging in Patients With Moderate-to-Severe COVID-19 Pneumonia.Canadian respiratory journal · 2026Article
- Article
- Democratising the design and delivery of large-scale randomised, controlled clinical trials in primary care: A personal view.The European journal of general practice · 2024Article
- Molecular Hydrogen for Outpatients with COVID-19 (Hydro-COVID): A Phase 3 Randomised, Triple-Blinded, Pragmatic, Placebo-Controlled, Multicentre Trial.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- COVID-19 drug discovery and treatment options.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2024Review
- Lessons we learned during the past four challenging years in the COVID-19 era: pharmacotherapy, long COVID complications, and vaccine development.Virology journal · 2024Review
- Article
- Plausibility of natural immunomodulators in the treatment of COVID-19-A comprehensive analysis and future recommendations.Heliyon · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
22 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundColchicine has been proposed as a COVID-19 treatment.
aimTo determine whether colchicine reduces time to recovery and COVID-19-related admissions to hospital and/or deaths among people in the community. DESIGN AND
settingProspective, multicentre, open-label, multi-arm, randomised, controlled, adaptive platform trial (PRINCIPLE).
methodAdults aged ≥65 years or ≥18 years with comorbidities or shortness of breath, and unwell for ≤14 days with suspected COVID-19 in the community, were randomised to usual care, usual care plus colchicine (500 µg daily for 14 days), or usual care plus other interventions. The co-primary endpoints were time to first self-reported recovery and admission to hospital/death related to COVID-19, within 28 days, analysed using Bayesian models.
resultsThe trial opened on 2 April 2020. Randomisation to colchicine started on 4 March 2021 and stopped on 26 May 2021 because the prespecified time to recovery futility criterion was met. The primary analysis model included 2755 participants who were SARS-CoV-2 positive, randomised to colchicine (
conclusionColchicine did not improve time to recovery in people at higher risk of complications with COVID-19 in the community.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.