equipoise n.
a state of genuine and substantial uncertainty as to which of two or more courses of action will be best for a patient. Equipoise is an important ethical principle in research, specifically in the design of clinical trials. It is generally held that the random allocation of patients to one or other arm of a trial is ethically acceptable only where there is a genuine uncertainty (equipoise) as to which treatment will most benefit trial participants. Knowingly to assign an individual to inferior or ineffective treatment (such as a placebo) would offend against the principle that his or her ... ...
Access to the complete content on Oxford Reference requires a subscription or purchase. Public users are able to search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter without a subscription.
Please subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you have purchased a print title that contains an access token, please see the token for information about how to register your code.
For questions on access or troubleshooting, please check our FAQs, and if you can''t find the answer there, please contact us.
