PrepTest 147 - Section 3 - Passage 3 - Question 17

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The following passage is based on an article published in 1987.

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Intro topic · Problems arise in comparative clinical studies of medical treatments

These trials involve withholding one or more treatments from at least one group of patients. This creates ethical issues.

Traditional standard · Equipoise (no opinion)

The traditional view is that doctors participating in comparative clinical trials shouldn't have an opinion about which treatment is more effective

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Author's perspective · Theoretical equipoise is too strict, because researchers will usually have an opinion

Even if at the start a doctor thinks both treatments are equal, as the study continues, it's likely that doctors will develop an opinion about which is better.

Author's proposal · Clinical equipoise

Many trials are done to resolve a conflict in the expert community about what treatment is best for a given illness. Experts can be honestly divided about which is better.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

Problem-analysis

17.

Suppose two medical treatments are █████ ████████ ██ █ ████████ █████ ███ █████ █████████████ ██ ████████ █ ██████████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ █████████ █████ ██ █████████████ ████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███████████ █████████ ████ ████████ ██████████

Question Type

Application

Theoretical equipoise is threatened whenever a researcher has a preference for one treatment over another. However, clinical equipoise isn’t threatened merely by the existence of a preference for one treatment over another. As long as there’s no consensus about the best approach, the trial meets clinical equipoise. So the correct answer is likely to be a situation in which a researcher has a preference for one treatment for another — which violates theoretical equipoise — but there are a lot of people in the medical profession who support the less favored treatment — which would allow the trial to meet the clinical equipoise standard.

The initial results ██ ███ █████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ███ █████████ ████ ████ ████ █████████ ███ ██████ ████████████ ██████ ███ █████ ███ ████ ████ █████ ██ █ ███████ ████ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ████████ ███ █████████ ████ ██ █████ ███ ████ █████████ █████████ ██████ ███ █████ ███ ██████

This threatens clinical equipoise, too, because there’s evidence a consensus has developed about which treatment is better. Clinical equipoise depends on the absence of consensus.

26%

Preliminary results in ███ █████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ██████████ ███ ███████ █████████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████████ ███ █████ ███████ ███ ███ ████████ █████ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ████ ███ ██ ███ ██████ ████████ █████████ ███ █████ ██ █████

This doesn’t violate theoretical equipoise, because we don’t know whether some physicians have a preference for one treatment over another.

Several of the ██████████ █████████████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ ████████ ███ █████████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ████ █████ ████ ███ █████████ ████ ██████ ███ ██████ ████████ ██████████

This threatens clinical equipoise, because there’s a consensus. Clinical equipoise depends on the absence of consensus.

18%

Initial results from ███ █████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████████ ██████████ ████ ███ █████████ ████ ███████████ ██████ ███ █████████ ████ ███ █████ █████ ████ ████ ███ ██████ █████ ███████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ █████████ █████ ███████ ██ ████████ ███ ████████

This violates theoretical equipoise, because some researchers prefer one treatment over the other. But it doesn’t threaten clinical equipoise, because there’s a lack of consensus about which treatment is better.

46%

There is consensus █████ ██████████ █████████████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ████ ██████████ ███ ███████ █████████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████████ ████████ █████ ██ ██ █████████ ██████ ███ ██████ ███████ █████████ ██ ██ ███ ████████ █████████████ ██ ███ ███████████

This doesn’t violate theoretical equipoise, because we have no reason to think a research prefers one treatment over another.

PrepTest 147 - Section 3 - Passage 3 - Question 17

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