Dr. Norton wants to control for all possible confounding factors in his study of treatment efficacy. He knows that as part of this study he must control for possible placebo effect, which refers to __________.

A) improvement following treatment with a medically neutral substance
B) a drug-induced change in specific "target" symptoms
C) spontaneous improvement in the absence of any therapy
D) the ability of a drug to prevent a disease

Question

Lambert Louise Loleng · Accepted Answer

Final Answer : A, Explanation :  The placebo effect refers to improvement following treatment with a medically neutral substance, which could be a sugar pill or saline solution, for example. Controlling for this effect is important in determining whether the treatment being studied is actually effective, beyond any improvement that may be due to the placebo effect.

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