Journal of paediatrics and child health
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J Paediatr Child Health · Jun 2011
The placebo mystique: Implications for clinical trial methodology.
The World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki states that the use of a placebo in a clinical trial can only be justified ethically when no proven active treatment is available as a comparison. Despite this, placebos remain a popular choice as controls in clinical trials. Recent literature reviews have suggested that reliance on placebos may, in part, be because of methodological misconceptions about the need for placebos to control for the 'placebo effect'. This study aimed to assess doctors' understanding of the requirements for placebo use in clinical trials. ⋯ Misconceptions about the methodological requirement for placebos in randomised controlled trials may influence researcher decisions to use placebo controls in unethical situations.
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Medical practitioners are frequently called upon to write multiple-choice questions for high stakes examinations, such as final year medical student assessments and specialist college accreditation examinations. The fairness and validity of these examinations depends principally on the generation of high-quality questions, which adequately sample the curriculum. The most common format for multiple-choice examinations are single best answer and extended matching type questions. This paper provides a simple guideline that will assist with the production of high-quality multiple-choice papers in these formats.