Chapter 11.4, Problem 2JC

Recall the experiment about gastric freezing, an old method for treating peptic ulcers that you read about in the first Just Checking. Doctors would insert an inflatable bladder down the patient’s esophagus and into the stomach and then pump in a cold liquid. A major insurance company now states that it doesn’t cover this treatment because “double-blind, controlled clinical trials” failed to demonstrate that gastric freezing was effective.

1. a) What does it mean that the experiment was double-blind?
2. b) Why would you recommend a placebo control?
3. c) Suppose that researchers suspected that the effectiveness of the gastric freezing treatment might depend on whether a patient had recently developed the peptic ulcer or had been suffering from the condition for a long time. How might the researchers have designed the experiment?