In clinical trials of new medicines

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madhur_ahuja: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 435; Joined: Sat May 02, 2009 3:55 am; Thanked: 17 times

by madhur_ahuja » Wed Jul 15, 2009 7:18 pm

In clinical trials of new medicines, half of the subjects receive the drug being tested and half receive a physiologically inert substance—a placebo. Trials are designed with the intention that neither subjects nor experimenters will find out which subjects are actually being given the drug being tested. However, this intention is frequently frustrated because______

Which one of the following, if true, most appropriately completes the explanation?

(A) often the subjects who receive the drug being tested develop symptoms that the experimenters recognize as side effects of the physiologically active drug
(B) subjects who believe they are receiving the drug being tested often display improvements in their conditions regardless of whether what is administered to them is physiologically active or not
(C) in general, when the trial is intended to establish the experimental drug’s safety rather than its effectiveness, all of the subjects are healthy
(D) when a trial runs a long time, few of the experimenters will work on it from inception to conclusion
(E) the people who are subjects for clinical trials must, by law, be volunteers and must be informed of the possibility that they will receive a placebo

Source: Beat The GMAT — Critical Reasoning | Wed Jul 15, 2009 7:18 pm

Mayur Sand: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 166; Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2009 11:16 pm; Location: India

by Mayur Sand » Wed Jul 15, 2009 7:40 pm

IMO (A) should be the one as , if some one who took drug being tested and shows signs that he took placebo , it completely derails experiment .

tohellandback: Legendary Member; Posts: 752; Joined: Sun May 17, 2009 11:04 pm; Location: Tokyo; Thanked: 81 times; GMAT Score:680

by tohellandback » Wed Jul 15, 2009 7:41 pm

is it A?
the intention is to keep the subjects and the experimenters unaware of who is administered what. But if experimenters recognize the side effects, then they know that the person is administered the physiologically active drug.

The powers of two are bloody impolite!!

mehravikas: Legendary Member; Posts: 1161; Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 2:52 amFollowed by: 1 member; Location: Sydney; Thanked: 23 times

by mehravikas » Thu Jul 16, 2009 1:14 pm

is it B?

Subjects are not aware whether they are given drug or a placebo, but if the all subjects believe that they are given drugs and show improvement then it is difficult to say whether the drug being tested is effective.

Nice question..

crackgmat007: Legendary Member; Posts: 882; Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2009 2:57 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 15 times; GMAT Score:690

by crackgmat007 » Thu Jul 16, 2009 2:41 pm

IMO E

The intention is to keep the subjects and the experimenters unaware of who is administered what. If by law, subjects must be made aware of what they are given, the intention is frustrated. However, I see the word 'frequently' before 'frustrated'. So not too sure.

OA pls.

pandeyvineet24: Legendary Member; Posts: 527; Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2008 9:14 am; Location: Atlanta; Thanked: 17 times

by pandeyvineet24 » Thu Jul 16, 2009 4:23 pm

IMO A, Experimenters cannot distinguish between subjects who have been administered drug from subjects who have been administered placebo

brick2009: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 171; Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 8:59 pm; Thanked: 8 times

Not E

by brick2009 » Thu Jul 16, 2009 8:26 pm

E:

Its argument is about the INTENTION of the clinical trial.

The conslusion: The INTENTION is frequently frustrated.

The premise : should talk about the reason for the Frustration....

A-B == talk about the effects of medicine on the patients (out of scope)
C&D -- are not "intention" of the trial..

Identify the SUBJECT of the argument.. it will be easy to pick the answer.

PAB2706: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 260; Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2008 8:10 pm; Thanked: 4 times

by PAB2706 » Fri Jul 17, 2009 9:19 pm

Is it E

The intentions are that neither the subjects nor the experimenters know bout which subject is getting wht...

now, how can this intention be foiled? wht if there are some regulations which mandate making subjects aware of the effects of the experiment....then in that case the experiment goes flop and hence frustrates the intentions..

aj5105: Legendary Member; Posts: 1169; Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 2:34 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 25 times

by aj5105 » Sat Jul 18, 2009 9:02 am

it's (a).

Check these words 'frequently frustrated'. once you know the law, you know the law forever. experimenters might 've been frustrated by the law for the first time, but not frequently.

ranell: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 224; Joined: Mon May 04, 2009 2:44 pm; Location: Russia, Moscow; Thanked: 10 times; GMAT Score:730

by ranell » Sat Jul 18, 2009 9:40 am

(A) often the subjects who receive the drug being tested develop symptoms that the experimenters recognize as side effects of the physiologically active drug – CORRECT because if subjects of clinical trials develop side effects of the drug, it is undoubtedly that experimenters will know that these subjects have received a drug being tested and not placebo.
(B) subjects who believe they are receiving the drug being tested often display improvements in their conditions regardless of whether what is administered to them is physiologically active or not – out of scope
(C) in general, when the trial is intended to establish the experimental drug’s safety rather than its effectiveness, all of the subjects are healthy – it doesn’t matter whether the subjects are healthy or not
(D) when a trial runs a long time, few of the experimenters will work on it from inception to conclusion - it doesn’t matter how many experimenters and whether experimenters will work on clinical trials from the exception to conclusion
(E) the people who are subjects for clinical trials must, by law, be volunteers and must be informed of the possibility that they will receive a placebo – if the subjects of clinical trials must be informed whether they receive a placebo, these people will know whether they are given the drug being tested or not. So if the volunteers don’t know about the placebo and are actually given it, it is unlawful. There is a possibility that people won’t know about the placebo, but there is also a requirement to discover placebo receiving by the subjects – and at the same time there is no GUARANTEE THAT this requirement will be fulfilled. So E can be negated

khanshainur: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 300; Joined: Fri Aug 09, 2013 2:26 am

by khanshainur » Sun May 15, 2016 11:42 pm

I think A is the right answer here

Eric77Gorm: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 52; Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2014 3:20 am

by Eric77Gorm » Sun May 15, 2016 11:44 pm

In my opinion A is the most logical one.

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