Why Is It Important to Include a Placebo in a Scientific

question 68

Multiple Choice

Why is it important to include a placebo in a scientific study to assess the effectiveness of a drug?

• A) It's actually unethical to include a placebo and it is usually not done. If you have a drug that you know to be effective, it's unethical to withhold that treatment from an ill patient.
• B) A placebo-treated group will determine if the changes observed in the drug-treated illness group are due to a psychological effect rather than a physiologic/pharmacologic one.
• C) It isn't scientifically important to include a placebo. A placebo simply helps investigators satisfy the legal requirements of the Food and Drug Administration in their testing process.
• D) A placebo-treated group will determine if the changes observed in the illness in this non-treated group are due to a physiologic/pharmacologic effect rather than a psychological one.
• E) Both groups of people are actually given the drug and a placebo. This is a way to ensure patient compliance, without which the study would not yield any useable information.

Understand the role of membranes in cellular processes such as exocytosis and facilitated diffusion.

Describe how cells interact and communicate through their membranes.

Understand the structural and functional characteristics of transmembrane proteins, including the impacts of hydrophilic side chain removal.

Describe the purpose and outcomes of the freeze-fracturing technique in studying membrane proteins.

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Definitions:

Groupthink

A psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people when the desire for harmony in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome.

Poor Decisions

Choices or judgments that result in undesirable outcomes, often due to a lack of information, consideration, or impulse control.

Consensus

This term means general agreement among a group or the shared conclusions of a collective.

Stereotype

A generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people.