Randomized Controlled Trials

Randomized Controlled Trials

Introduction

The scientific community considers Randomized Controlled Trials to be the highest level of proof also known as the gold standard, of any research method where treatments as well as therapies are concerned. This trail allocates participants and volunteers at random to be a part of various treatments that test how effective psychological or mental interventions and administration of drugs also known as pharmacotherapy is. This study is carried out through the double blind method of experimentation in which neither the volunteer participant nor the researcher knows who is a part of the control group and who has been put in the experimental group. The purpose of this method is that it removes any chances of bias by the experimenter and volunteer whether consciously done or subconsciously. To get the exact experiment a single variable is manipulated and the rest are kept constant. These trails assist in establishing how efficient and effective the treatment is and the experimenter learns about its side effects. This treatment has proven to have had strong mental and psychological effect on the participants it was carried out on, an effect called the placebo effect (Kendall JM. 2003).

Strengths of Randomized Controlled Trails

If designed well, this trail provides the most efficient form of evidence and data of any epidemiological experiment, that an intervention has a more effective hypothesis and is safe. The study provides data from which the most reliable form of conclusions can be derived; as the study is randomly done it provides a strong and effective tool for managing and controlling for confounding regardless of the factors being tricky to measure. The sequence is chronological and the outcome is preceded by exposure. It provides a strong base to come to a statistical conclusion. As the procedure is blinding it eradicates chances of bias. This trial can calculate and evaluate disease incidence and can calculate various possibilities and outcomes.

Randomized controlled trials give an experimenter confidence that whatever differences and dissimilarity are present between the treatment and the control are due to the treatment, as randomly conducted trials, in theory equalize all variables of the participants in each group before the experiment is conducted. The only time a valid conclusion can be derived is when an investigator or experimenter has ensured that from the designing of the trial to how it has been conducted and reported, has been done with regard to minimizing bias in the trial.

Randomized Controlled Trails Inappropriate

Regardless of how effective the tools of Randomized controlled trials are, the use is somewhat limited and deemed inappropriate by practical as well as ethical concerns. It is believed that intervention is an inferior form to current treatment and having a patient got through with is unethical. In some cases where the trial is considered ethical, it may be infeasible if there are problems occurring with the randomization process and when recruiting applicants. If a patient has rigid preferences that could bind the perimeters of recruitment and the outcomes could be bias ...