A provocation test, also called a provocation trial or provocation study, is a form of medical
clinical trial
Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel vaccines, drugs, dietar ...
whereby participants are exposed to either a substance or "thing" that is claimed to provoke a response, or to a sham substance or device that should provoke no response. An example of a provocation test, performed on an individual, is a
skin allergy test
Skin allergy testing comprises a range of methods for medical diagnosis of allergies that attempts to provoke a small, controlled, allergic response.
Methods
A microscopic amount of an allergen is introduced to a patient's skin by various mean ...
.
See also
*
Blind experiment
In a blind or blinded experiment, information which may influence the participants of the experiment is withheld until after the experiment is complete. Good blinding can reduce or eliminate experimental biases that arise from a participants' expec ...
*
Control group
In the design of experiments, hypotheses are applied to experimental units in a treatment group.
In comparative experiments, members of a control group receive a standard treatment, a placebo, or no treatment at all. There may be more than one tr ...
Design of experiments
Clinical pharmacology
Epidemiology
{{pharma-stub