Question

Subjects___________________________________________

3.26 Do magnets reduce pain? Some claim that magnets can be used to reduce pain. Design a double-blind experiment to test this claim. Write a proposal requesting funding for your study giving all the important details, including the number of subjects, issues concerning randomization, and how you will make the study double-blind.

Treatments and assignment____________________________________________________

controls_________________________________________

How to make double blind?_____________________________________________

Answer 1

(a)

Subjects: Select N volunteers having pain for the experimentation.

(b)

Treatments and assignment:

Decide 2 independent treatments: (i) standard medicines and (ii) treatment by magnets. Assign the N volunteers equally to receive one of the 2 treatments arbitrarily.

(c)

Controls:

Form 2 independent groups: (i) Control Group and (ii) Experimental Group. Through Simple Random Sampling (SRS), assign the N volunteers to one of the 2 groups, with N/2 members for group (i) and N/2 members for Group (2). Group (i) will receive the standard medicines. Group (ii) will receive treatment by magnets.

(d)

How to make double blind:

We can make this as double - blind study by properly designing the experiment such that neither the subjects (here, the volunteers having pain) nor the experimenters know which subjects are in the experimental group and control group during the actual course of the experimentation.