Clinical research and good science

Why do we need clinical research?

Clinical trials assess whether a potential treatment works better than a current approved treatment (if there is one) or a placebo. They also look for side effects that might be associated with new treatments.

Getting a treatment through clinical trials can take years and it can be very frustrating to wait for clinical research to happen, but there are good reasons for research to take so long.

Research based on scientific evidence, where a treatment is rigorously tested in clinical trials with large numbers of people, is the best way of finding out whether a treatment is having a real effect, and whether it is safe.

See a timeline of the research process

Find out about:

• The placebo effect
• Anecdotal evidence
• Scientific journals and peer review

The placebo effect

The placebo effect is a well documented physical response. Research has shown that when people take a ‘dummy’ treatment that they think might work, about half of them will experience an improvement.

This highlights the need for proper clinical trials in order to prove that it is the treatment that's making a difference to people, and not any other factor.

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Anecdotal evidence

Anecdotal evidence (what people say) can seem very convincing, especially with the increase in the number of people posting videos on the internet before and after receiving their drug or treatment.

Although there may be some very convincing anecdotal evidence for a treatment, there are various reasons why anecdotal evidence does not mean treatment will be immediately available for people to use:

• We don’t know how many people are going for treatments, or had the same results. For everyone who has reported benefits of how their symptoms have improved, there may be five or ten who have not noticed a difference.
• We don’t know how long improvements last, or if they are due to a placebo effect.

The only way to safely say if a treatment is effective and safe is through a proper clinical trial.

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Scientific journals and peer review

Research published in most scientific journals is 'peer reviewed', meaning it must pass the scrutiny of independent reviewers with experience in the field.

They assess whether it is valid, significant and original work, how the study was designed and whether it supports the conclusions put forward by the researchers.

This process is widely regarded as the international gold-standard for making sure that published research is of the highest quality.

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