Question

6. Imagine you have signed up to participate in a double-blinded placebo controlled clinical trial at ASU that is trying to evaluate the impact of chromium supplements on blood sugar control. A What is a clinical trial? What is a double-blind experiment and why is double-blinding important? (3 points) b. In the clinical trial referenced in the question, state which treatment the experimental group would receive and which treatment the control group would receive. (2 points)

Answer 1

6.

A. Clinical trials are experiments conducted to find out whether a specific treatment woks for a disease efficiently or not. It helps us find the efficiency and also the safety related aspects of the drug. This helps us formulate a treatment, dosage by balancing the effectiveness and side effects of the drug.

The double-experiment is a randomised trial where a group of people from whom informed consent is taken previously are divided into two groups randomly by a computer. One group receives actual medication and treatment while the second group receives a placebo. The double-blind experiment means in this experiment neither the patient nor the doctors who examine these patients know what the specific patient is receiving. Both of them will have no idea whether they are receiving a placebo or actual medication. Both the placebo and actual drug are exactly identical in size, shape, smell and taste making it impossible to find difference with normal sensations like vision, smell and taste.

This is important because if the clinician knows what the patient is receiving then his observation and findings can be biased and an error can occur. This is why double-blinding is very important.

B. In this trial, the experiment group will receive the actual treatment and medication and the control group will receive placebo.

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