What is the study design used in the following research project?
Twenty patients, all of whom have bipolar mania, have been placed on lithium and also begun on a medication believed to prevent rapid cycling. The patients are followed for 12 months, at which time they are seen by a psychiatrist monthly, to adjust their dosages. Medication compliance, emergency department visits, and mental health hospitalizations are measured. These are compared with another group of patients with the same mental illness, being treated on lithium alone.
a. Posttest-only design with comparison group
b. Pretest-posttest design with comparison group
c. Pretest-posttest design with removed treatment
d. Pretest-posttest design with two comparison treatments
ANS: A
The posttest-only design with comparison group offers an improvement on the one-group posttest-only design, because of the addition of a nonequivalent comparison group. However, subjects are tested only after the treatment; the group is not pretested, so there is no direct way to measure change. In the example given, there is no mention of pretesting. In the pretest and posttest design with a comparison group, both the experimental group and the comparison group are tested both before and after the experimental group is treated. The pretest and posttest design with removed-treatment creates conditions that approximate the conceptual requirements of a control group receiving no treatment. The design is basically a one-group pretest-posttest design. However, after a delay, a third measure of the dependent variable is taken, followed by an interval in which the treatment is removed, followed by a fourth measure of the dependent variable. Pretest-posttest design with two comparison treatments are used when two experimental treatments are being compared to determine which is most effective. In most cases, this design is used when one treatment is the currently identified treatment of choice and the researcher has identified a treatment that might lead to even better outcomes.
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