Clinical control group

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A clinical control group is a group of individuals, involved in a medical experimentation, who do not receive the treatment, in order to determine the effectiveness of the drug, supplement or treatment being tested.

Comparing the results of a group receiving treatment with the clinical control group is essential to help rule out imagined or random effects of the treatment. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provides some guidelines about how the groups should be selected; in general the control group and the group receiving the treatment should be as identical as possible.

If a drug is being tested, the control group will frequently be given a placebo. This is done as a double blind test, as neither the doctor nor the patient know if they are receiving the drug under test or a placebo, and don't find out which substance was administered until after the experiment is concluded.