#18 - In clinical trials of new medicines, half of the

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Resolve the Paradox-FIB. The correct answer choice is (A)

This stimulus was written to discuss the use of placebos in clinical trials of new medications. Neither the study participants nor the clinicians are intended to know which patients get the real drug and which get the placebo, but for some reason this intent is often frustrated. The blank is to be filled with a reason for this routine frustration—the correct answer choice will likely explain why either the patients or those running the trials might access the information meant to be kept secret. Correct answer choice (A) provides such an explanation. If some side effects are known to those running the trials, then this would tend to frustrate the intention of keeping secret the identities of those who get the placebo and those who get the active drug. None of the other answer choices provide any explanation as to why it is so difficult to keep such information secret in the referenced trials.

[PositiveThinker]

I understand why A is correct. I understand why B, C, and D are incorrect. I do not understand why E is incorrect. Wouldn't E explain why the intentions of keeping the placebo a secret be frustrated by answer choice E?


Thanks for your help.

[Adam Tyson]

Hey there Thinker, good question. The issue here is not whether the patients know that they MIGHT get a placebo, as in answer E, but whether they DID get a placebo. The patients aren't supposed to know which drug they got, the real one or the placebo, so just telling them that there is a chance they will get a placebo doesn't do anything to frustrate that intention. See the difference?

Keep up the good work! You're asking some good questions here.

[olafimihan.k]

Can you explain why answer choice B is wrong?
Thank you

[AthenaDalton]

Here's why answer choice (B) is incorrect.

The study is designed so that neither the doctors nor the patients will know (for certain) who is assigned to the placebo group or the real group. To frustrate this intention, we could either (1) have the doctors know who is receiving the real drug or (2) have the patients know who is receiving the real drug.

The idea of running study like this is to isolate the psychological effects that may stem from a patient's belief that they are taking an effective drug and the drug itself. For example, patients given pills filled with sugar instead of medicine actually do show some improvement because they believe they're getting better. Having two groups of patients allows the researchers to isolate the psychological benefits from the actual physiological benefits of the drug. Ideally, you would want both groups of patients to believe they're taking the real drug.

In answer choice (B), the patients in the placebo (fake drug) group do not actually know, for certain, which group they are in. Answer choice (B) is is just describing the placebo effect. Even if subjects who take the fake drug show some improvements, it won't derail the study. The researchers can look for differences in improvements between the two groups to tease out whether the drug is actually working or not.

By contrast, in answer choice (A) the doctors will know who the real patients are, so it will compromise their objectivity in measuring the effectiveness of the drug.

I hope this makes sense! Good luck studying.

[caroline@remicklaw.com]

Having trouble with this one...

Is answer choice A depicting an event in which a subject given physiologically active drug has symptoms that are then written down as side effects for that physiologically active drug?

I understand if a subject who took the placebo exhibited symptoms that were then believed to be the side effects of the real drug, but I dont understand it the other way around. What would be the issue if the subjects who took the real drug exhibited symptoms that the experimenters copied down as a side effect for that drug?

[Bob O'Halloran]

Hi Caroline,
Thank you for your question.

The intention of the trial is for "neither subjects nor experimenters will find out which subjects are actually being given the drug being tested"

If the experimenters recongize side effects that would mean they would they will know who got the active drug and frustrate the intention of keeping it secret.

Let us know if you have other questions.
Bob