PT147.S3.P3.Q16 > Analytics

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

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.

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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.

Elaborate on clinical equipoise · As long as there's no expert consensus, the trial is OK

If there's no consensus among experts about which treatment is better, it's OK to do the trial. And it's OK for researchers to have an opinion about which is better.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

Problem-analysis

16.

According to the passage, which ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ █████

Comparative clinical trials ████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████████ █████████ █████████ ███████ ██ ███████ █████████

“No ethical problems” is not stated. Although meeting the standard of theoretical equipoise would mean there’s no ethical problem concerning the issue of whether to withhold treatments from one group, this isn’t necessarily the only potential ethical issue. There might be other ethical issues unrelated to equipoise.

Clinical researchers are █████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███████████ ████████ ██████ ███████████ ███████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ████████ ██████ ███ █████████ ████ ████████

Not stated. Although the author does indicate that few comparative trials could proceed to completion IF the standard of theoretical equipoise is adhered to, the author never states that people actually do stick to the standard of theoretical equipoise.

17%

A clinical trial █████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████ ██████ ███████ ███ ██ ███ █████████████ ██████████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ ███ ██████

Stated in P4.

68%

A comparative clinical █████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ █████████ █████ █████████ ████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████████ ██████████

Not supported, because theoretical equipoise is more strict. So even if a trial meets clinical equipoise, it wouldn’t necessarily meet theoretical equipoise.

Medical researchers generally ███ ██ ███████ ███████████ ████████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ ██████████

Not supported. Although the author advocates for clinical equipoise, she never suggests researchers “generally” try to adhere to clinical equipoise.

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