A personal view of some controversies in allocating treatment to patients in clinical trials.
A non-exhaustive but nevertheless wide-ranging if biased and personal view of various matters affecting the allocation of treatments to patients in controlled clinical trials will be undertaken from the standpoint of a statistician working in drug development. The following topics are considered: the use of ¿placebos' in the run-in phase; the use of crossover trials; selection of patients; various matters concerning centres; two extreme alternatives to randomization, and various matters linking blinding and allocation.
Senn
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Medicine and Clinical Development Department, CIBA-GEIGY, Basle, Switzerland.
D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D018579:Patient Selection; D010919:Placebos; D011897:Random Allocation; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012107:Research Design; D016037:Single-Blind Method
D010919:Placebos