In a double-blinded (also called double-blind) clinical trial (study) of a new medication, patients receive a certain type of treatment (e.g., a pill) without the doctors, nurses, and patients knowing which type of medication (e.g., is in the pill that) the patient is receiving. The purpose of a double-blinded clinical trial is to make the data and interpretations of the study more objective by:
• Lowering the effects of the patients’ assumptions about the medications on the symptoms and side effects that they report to the doctors and nurses
• Lowering the effects of the doctors’ and nurses’ prejudgments about the medications on the symptoms of the illness, effectiveness of the medications, and side effects reported
The medications in a double-blinded clinical trial are coded, so that the people who analyze the results at the end of trial can determine:
• Which patients received which type(s) of medications
• Which effects on the disease were due to which medications
• Which side effects were due to which medications
|
is a trademark of HC Search Corporation.
for free.
