How Can I Understand Clinical Trials?
How Can I Understand Clinical Trials?Clinical trials are required to document that a drug works (and to get an idea of safety and side effects as well). What goes into the design of a clinical trial and what does it mean?Answer: Scientists use clinical trials to more or less prove that a certain drug, procedure or device works. By proof is meant that (statistically speaking) if the trial was repeated again and again, there is a very high likelihood that the results would be the same almost every time. Numbers, such as an improvement in psoriasis PASI scores, are often reported with a “p-value” quoted, for example: p<0.001. What this tells us is that the likelihood of that beneficial result being found and erroneously reported when in fact the drug had no effect is very small, less than 1 in 1,000. When "p-values" are small, the study has statistical significance. Larger studies with more patients and low p-values have
