Does St John's Wort Have a Significant Effect in Treating Major

question 7

Multiple Choice

Does St. John's wort have a significant effect in treating major depression? A study looked at 340 adult outpatients suffering from major depression as measured by their HAM-D score, randomly assigning each subject to either a placebo, St. John's wort, or a second active treatment for comparison.
The study found the difference in treating major depression as measured by improvement in HAM-D scores between St. John's wort and the placebo was not statistically significant. This means that:

• A) we cannot make a 95 percent confidence statement.
• B) a difference this big could easily occur just by chance even if St. John's wort does no better than the placebo.
• C) the placebo makes no difference in the subjects' depression.
• D) the study was badly designed.

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