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Blinding
Every effort should
be made to double blind all comparative antiemetic trials, since
both nausea and vomiting may be influenced by external stimuli
and suggestion. However, it must be recognized that blinding may
be difficult to achieve. Informed consent information that describes
different side effects for different arms of the study may make
blinding difficult to accomplish. If the drugs being compared
have differing side effects, both patients and treating staff
may be able to accurately guess one or more of the arms. To best
preserve the validity of the trial, if subjective criteria are
used, it is essential that maximum efforts be made to ensure that
at least the patient is blinded to the treatment assignment.
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