This can be a drug or other punch in of treatment, such as nutritional changes or massage.
Because patients dont know what theyre getting, their belief about what will happen doesnt taint the results.
If researchers do know whos getting the treatment but the participants do not, its called a single-blind trial.
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That way, researchers can compare the treatments effectiveness against the effects experienced by the placebo group.
The highest-quality studies are also randomized, meaning that subjects are randomly assigned to placebo and intervention groups.
The acronym DBRCT is commonly used for these types of studies.
American Cancer Society.Clinical trials.
National Institutes of Health.NIH clinical research trials and you: the basics.
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.Q&A: Phase I clinical trials.
