In clinical trials of new medicines, half of the subjects receive the

I am with A.. answer choice should pose some concern on the experiment itself if we don't know who is using placebo and who is using medication..

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IMO A

B - As per this choice even the subjects given Placebo will show improvement as do the subjects given drug being tested. Therefore in such cases the experimenters will not clearly find out which subjects are actually being given the drug tested.
C - Subject being healthy volunteers is not relevant to the argument.
D - Duration of the trail is not relevant to the argument.
E - Requirements of the law is not relevant to the argument.

IMO A is the correct answer. Only this suggests that the experimenters will be able to know which group is on which medicine. Hence, the frustration.

Half will receive the drug that is being tested.

Half will receive a placebo.

These clinical trials are designed so that BOTH the experimenters and subjects will be not know which group received the real drug.

The last statement begins with the word "however," so we can expect some sort of caveat or contrast with what we have read.

It's like "we try to live in this perfect idealized theoretical word where we do this and that. However..."

This however states that the intention is basically muddled because of something.

I would say this is a resolve the paradox/discrepancy type of question.

Answer choices:

A) This would complete the explanation as to why those intentions would be muddled! If it is true that sometimes the subjects that receive the real drug start developing symptoms that experimenters recognize as being side effects from that drug.

For example, lets say they want to drug a new workout drug to see how it works with weight loss. Lets say they include in this a chemical that is known to cause acne breakouts. The experimenters do not know which group was given the drug, however, once people start breaking out, this situation of who knows what can now be considered muddled.

B) This would be consistent with the experimenters not knowing which group received the placebo and which received the real drug.

C) Out of scope. We do not know what the intentions of these trials are.

D) Does not change the implications of whether or not those experimenters who started from the beginning now know which group received the placebo and which received the real drug.

E) This is applied to both groups. The experimenters will not know which group received the placebo and which received the real drug.

Hello broall,

How can the intention be frustrated? This phrase just took me aback. Whatever i understood from the passage just didn't seem to be consistent with this particular line.
The source of frustration can be anything and i really don't understand how the intent can become frustrated.

Please throw some light on this. Because of this final line i just got mixed up between A and B because I couldn't exactly pin point the source of frustration.

Regards

Refer to fmik7894's comment. The improtant information is in 2nd sentence.

Thank you broall .... i understood the mistake. .. outside knowledge was hampering my thought process.

Thank you once again !!

This is a double-blind experiment, for achieving the result that experimenters will NOT find out which subjects are actually being given the drug being tested.

I chose B, but I realized that A is correct. Experimenters will be frustrated because the reality will be revealed easily by the symptoms.

Great question!

Kudos please if that made sense

it is frustating, why?

because the exoected outcome or experiment is not following, given here:- experiment focuses that no subjects come to know what drug they are receiving but because drug shows its side effects and gets recpognised is frusteted.

I understand the reason for A, previously i thought it would be E because the option states that the subjects will know the possibility of taking placebo. Can anyone explain, isn't it possible to guess something after knowing the possibility..

This really is a nice hard question. I narrowed to A and E. Got it wrong by choosing E.

Was going through explanations and wondered, if we can dismiss options by saying - NOT discussed in argument.
I would say this is wrong way to dismiss/eliminate an option, especially when question says: if true

jayarora and skywalker18,
Your explanations made sense to me especially in eliminating option E. Thanks.

The key here is that the 'intention is frustrated'. The blank must explain why this is so by pointing to the fact that one or both parties are somehow aware of which treatment is which.

In clinical trials of new medicines, half of the subjects receive the drug being tested and half receive a physiologically inert substance—a placebo. Trials are designed with the intention that neither subjects nor experimenters will find out which subjects are actually being given the drug being tested. However, this intention is frequently frustrated because __________.

Which one of the following, if true, most appropriately completes the explanation?


(A) often the subjects who receive the drug being tested develop symptoms that the experimenters recognize as side effects of the physiologically active drug
-CORRECT

(B) subjects who believe they are receiving the drug being tested often display improvements in their conditions regardless of whether what is administered to them is physiologically active or not
-this is a trap choice...the subjects still don't know which drug is which

(C) in general, when the trial is intended to establish the experimental drug’s safety rather than its effectiveness, all of the subjects are healthy volunteers
-irrelevant

(D) when a trial runs a long time, few of the experimenters will work on it from inception to conclusion
-irrelevant

(E) the people who are subjects for clinical trials must, by law, be volunteers and must be informed of the possibility that they will receive a placebo
-irrelevant

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