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How Are Clinical Studies
of Mental Disorders Designed?
Clinical researchers call the standard
scientific approach for trying out treatments a
double-blind, randomized, controlled clinical trial.
Understanding this term, and knowing how and why this
approach is used, should help you to decide whether to
become a research volunteer.
An important part of scientific research
is comparison. Clinical research often will compare an
investigational treatment to one that is used frequently
and thus has familiar, or predictable, effects. To make
the comparison useful, the investigator must try both
methods on similar groups of subjects.
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