An N of 1 trial is a clinical trial in which a single patient is the entire trial, a single case study. A trial in which random allocation can be used to determine the order in which an experimental and a control intervention are given to a patient is an N of 1 randomized controlled trial. The order of experimental and control interventions can also be fixed by the researcher.
Contents
This type of study has enabled practitioners to achieve experimental progress without the overwhelming work of designing a group comparison study. It can be very effective in confirming causality. This can be achieved in many ways. One of the most common procedures is the ABA withdrawal experimental design, where the patient problem is measured before a treatment is introduced (baseline) and then measured again during the treatment and finally when the treatment has terminated. If the problem vanished during the treatment it can be established that the treatment was effective. But the N=1 study can also be executed in an AB quasi experimental way; this means that causality cannot be definitively demonstrated. Another variation is non-concurrent experimental design where different points in time are compared with one another. This experimental design also has a problem with causality. But the replication of studies has a great value and can be as effective as a group study. The single case experimental design has been very effective in psychology and other field of behavior science.
List of variation in N of 1 trial
Quasi experiment means that causality cannot be definitively demonstrated.
Experiment means that it can be demonstrated.
Examples
An N of 1 trial has been successfully to choose treatments whose optimal choice of treatment was uncertain for patients in diseases as diverse as osteoarthritis, chronic neuropathic pain and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder .