Testing treatments

"How do we know whether a particular drug, therapy or operation really works, and how well? How reliable is the clinical evidence? Are clinical trials truly unbiased? And is current research fully focused on the real needs of patients? Such timely and pressing questions are raised and resolved in this inquiry into modern clinical research, with far-reaching implications for daily medical practice and patient care. What emerges is the surprising truth that clinical research is neither as unbiased nor as relevant as patients have every right to expect, but that everyone - patients, doctors and researchers - can do much to change current practice and achieve better healthcare." "Spanning the gamut of illness and therapy - from mastectomy to thalidomide - this book explores a vast range of revealing case-studies, enlivened throughout by anecdotes and eyewitness accounts drawn from the direct experience of patients, practitioners and researchers."--BOOK JACKET.