A drug company developed a new medication to control the manic phase of bipolar

Question

A drug company developed a new medication to control the manic phase of bipolar manic-depression. The firm hired a hospital psychiatrist to test the effectiveness of the drug. He identified a group of manic-depressive patients and randomly assigned them to a drug or placebo group. Nurse Ratchet was told to administer the drug and Nurse Johnson was told to administer the placebo. Each nurse made daily observations of her patients during treatment. A month later the observations were compared. In general, patients in the drug group had behaved more "normally" than patients in the placebo group. The drug company publicized its product's effectiveness. Identify the independent variable(s). Identify the dependent variable(s). Identify any confounding variable(s). Propose a method to "unconfound" the experiment.

Explanation / Answer

1. Independent variables: Readings of patients who are in placebo group (say X)

2. Dependent variables: Readings of patients who are in drug group (say Y) { depending on drug)

3.confounding variable: d=X-Y (Difference of the Readings of patients in placebo and drug groups)

4. For claiming products effectiveness we can make use of Paired t-test

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse A
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.