Discontinuation of a randomised controlled trial in general practice due to unsuccessful patient recruitment.

Background: A randomised controlled trial (RCT) in general practice, recruiting incident patients with (sub)acute sciatica, was discontinued because of insufficient recruitment.

Aim: To describe factors that influenced the recruitment process and ultimately led to discontinuation of this trial, and to enable others to learn from this experience.

Design & Setting: A pragmatic RCT was designed to compare two pain medication prescription strategies for treatment of (sub)acute sciatica in general practice.