Experimental testing on the effects of new drug treatments

. Experimental testing on the effects of new drug treatments generally involve a “treatment group” and a “placebo group”. In some circumstances, the inclusion of a placebo group may be ethically questionable as it may involve randomly denying some individuals a potentially life saving medicine. An alternative is to give the experimental drug to all patients and to measure them before and after treatment. This kind of regime was used to test a new anti-viral agent that attacks the Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV). Ten HSV positive patients were identified and a count of CD4 cells was taken for each patient prior to administering the drug. Each patient was then given the drug and a second count was taken 1 month later. The before and after treatment estimates for all ten patients are contained in the Excel file “Drug trial.xls.” Perform an appropriate parametric statistical analysis to determine if drug treatment significantly increases CD4 count. Perform an appropriate non-parametric statistical analysis to address the same question. Patient Size Before Size After 1 20 27 2 170 176 3 141 139 4 103 110 5 26 37 6 19 28 7 188 190 8 125 125 9 28 36 10 80 88

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