One hundred volunteers who suffer from severe depression are available for a study. Fifty are selected at random and are given a
new drug that is thought to be particularly effective in treating severe depression. The other 50 are given an existing drug for treating severe depression. A psychiatrist evaluates the symptoms of all volunteers after 4 weeks in order to determine if there has been substantial improvement in the severity of the depression. Suppose volunteers were first divided by gender, and then half of the men were randomly assigned to the new drug and half of the women were assigned to the new drug. The remaining volunteers received the other drug. What is this an example of
This is an example of placebo testing in which, the two groups are given two substances that are said to have an effect on the condition that is being treated but one of them is the actual medicine that is being tested while the other one has no real effect over the medical condition. But the volunteers are not given information on which of the medicines is real and which is not, so that this does not affect the outcome of the experiment.
