Testing a natural remedy. The statistical controversy presented in this chapter

Question

Testing a natural remedy. The statistical controversy presented in this chapter discusses issues surrounding the efficacy of natural remedies. The National Institutes of Health at last began sponsoring proper clinical trials of some natural remedies. In one study at Duke University, 330 patients with mild depression were enrolled in a trial to compare Saint John’s wort with a placebo and with Zoloft, a common prescription drug for depression. The Beck Depression Inventory is a common instrument that rates the severity of depression on a 0 to 3 scale.

(a) What would you use as the response variable to measure change in depression after treatment?

(b) Outline the design of a completely randomized clinical trial for this study.

(c) What other precautions would you take in this trial?

Explanation / Answer

a) The response variable is severity of depression, which might decrease, increase or remain same. This is the dependent variable.

b. For the purpose, 330 patients with mild depression will be assigned randomly to either of the two treament groups-placebo and Zoloft.

c. Patients will not be allowed to experiment with any other medicine than Zoloft and they should be put in an neutral environment, without much trigger and excitement.

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