Imagine that you are a researcher working on a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. You
ID: 3327437 • Letter: I
Question
Imagine that you are a researcher working on a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. You develop a drug that you think could help people suffering from Alzheimer’s. To assess the effectiveness of the drug, you conduct a randomized comparative experiment. You find that 40% of patients taking a placebo report improvements, but 80% of the patients taking your new drug show improvement. What can you conclude from these results? a. ~feedback: We cannot stop the placebo effect from happening. But including the placebo group means that any difference we observe between the placebo group and the treatment group is due to the treatment. b. ~feedback: Random assignment does not stop the placebo effect from happening. But including the placebo group means that any difference we observe between the placebo group and the treatment group is due to the treatment. c. The placebo effect is not present in this experiment because the patients are randomly assigned to treatments. d. ~feedback: The purpose of the placebo group is to control the influence of the placebo effect. We cannot stop the placebo effect from happening. But including the placebo group means that any difference we observe between the placebo group and the treatment group is due to the treatment. e. The results of this experiment cannot be trusted because of the placebo effect. f. The placebo effect partially explains the results seen in the patients taking the new drug.
Explanation / Answer
Since the placebo is there and people do not kow whether they are getting placebo or treatment, there will be a placebo effect. However the difference between the results of placebo group and the treatment groups will shed some light on the effectiveness of treatment.
Hence the correct option is
b. ~feedback: Random assignment does not stop the placebo effect from happening. But including the placebo group means that any difference we observe between the placebo group and the treatment group is due to the treatment.