Control group

The group a new treatment is measured against.

Learning 

What it means

The control group provides the comparison. Depending on the study, it may receive a placebo, an existing standard treatment, or no study treatment at all.

Why it matters if you take part

Without a comparison group there is no way to tell whether change came from the treatment or would have happened anyway.

Related terms

Trials recruiting now that compare against an existing treatment

912 recruiting trials in our Canadian corpus compare against an existing treatment.

This explains how clinical research works. It is not medical advice and does not describe any specific condition or treatment. Only a trial site can determine whether someone can take part in a study.