Clinical trials are carefully designed and monitored to withstand critical scientific scrutiny to prove that the new method being studied is truly the one responsible for the result and it did not just happen by chance or influenced by other factors. They can be randomized, blinded, or double-blind. Let’s take a look at each of these:
#1: Randomized clinical trials
In a randomized clinical trial, a large number of patients with the same disease are assigned via computer to two groups: one receives the existing, standard treatment, the other received the new treatment. Treating patients with the same disease in this trial is used to demonstrate that a group of similar patients either did better or worse and thus helps to affirm if the new treatment is the only thing that made the difference in people that were treated with it.
#2: Blinded clinical trials
In this trial, patients are not only randomly assigned a treatment group, they are also unaware of which group (and which treatment) they receive. This is done to rule out the placebo effect, which is the ability of some patients to perform and respond better to treatments on complex motivational and psychological factors. Many patients will respond better to the treatment is they know they are been given the new treatment rather than the existing one.
#3: Double-blinded trials
In this trial, neither the patient nor the medical staff is aware of which patient receives the new treatment and which the existing, standard treatment. The double-blinded study is done in order to completely eliminate the possibility that subtle factors like psychology, motivation, and mood on the part of the staff might be sensed by the patient, which, therefore, could affect the result gotten from testing the new treatment.