Question

Which of the following most accurately describes clinical equipoise?

Answer 1

Clinical Equipoise can be accurately described as - Scientific uncertainty that one study intervention is superior to another.

Clinical equipoise is an assumption according to which there is not one 'better' intervention present (for either the control or experimental group) during the design of a randomized controlled trial (RCT). A true state of equipoise exists when one has no good basis for a choice between two or more care options.

Answer 2

The statement which accurately describes clinical equipoise is:

Scientific uncertainty that one study intervention is superior to another.

Clinical equipoise is also known as the principle of equipoise. It provides the ethical basis for medical research which involves assigning patients to different treatment arms of a clinical test. Benjamin Freedman used the term for the first time in 1987. It implies that there is a genuine uncertainty in the expert medical community about a treatment. It is also applicable to the off-label treatments done before or during the clinical trials.