Self-study
Medical specialists report that patients with back muscle injuries who receive a combination of drugs and physical therapy do only as well as those who receive physical therapy alone. ███ ███ ███████████ █████ ████ █████ ███ █ █████████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████ ██████ █████████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Patients treated with only physical therapy recover as well as patients treated with both physical therapy and drugs, yet specialists claim that drugs are still absolutely necessary for the patients who receive them.
Objective
The correct answer will be a hypothesis that explains why drugs are a necessary component of treatment for some patients. The result will likely include some difference between patients. Some patients might be fine with physical therapy alone, but some might need the combination to get the same benefit from treatment.
5.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ █████████ ███ ███████ ████████████ ███ ███████
a
Medical specialists treat ███ ████████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ██████ ████████ ████ ██████ ████████ ███████ █████ ██ █ ███████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ████████
This doesn’t explain why drugs are necessary. Patients treated with physical therapy alone perform just as well, so what’s the point of the drugs?
b
Medical specialists who █████████ █████ ██████████ ████ ████████ █████████ █████ ███ █████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ ███████ ███ ███ █████ ████████ ███████ ██████
Some patients need drugs in addition to physical therapy, while others only need physical therapy to get the same benefit. Medical specialists know who these patients are, hence why they claim the drugs are essential for certain patients.
c
Some back muscle ████████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██████ ██ █ ███████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ████████
This could be true about physical therapy alone, as well. We need to know why the drugs are ever necessary to begin with.
d
Some back muscle ████████ ████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ████████ ██ ████████ ████████ ████ ██ ████ ████████ ████ ████ ████████████ ███████ ████ ██████
We’re interested in comparing physical therapy treatment with a treatment combining physical therapy and drugs. This doesn't help us, because it's only talking about treating botched physical therapy with drugs.
e
Patients with injuries ██ █████ ███████ ████ ████ ███████████ ████ ███████ ████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ ███████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ████████ ███████ ██████
We don’t care about other muscles. We care about back muscle injuries, and why using drugs in combination with physical therapy may be necessary to treat back injuries for certain patients.