I'm looking up the clinical trial description (check out ref. 1) but I think these researchers are moving directly to a double-blind study because this drug is

I'm looking up the clinical trial description (check out ref. 1) but I think these researchers are moving directly to a double-blind study because this drug is already FDA-approved (ref. 2). Typically, clinical trials occur in three phases (ref. 3). Since this drug's side effects have been studied, the researchers are moving directly to test the drug's effects. As a final point, open label studies suffer from bias due to a person's expectations of improved health. A double-blind study minimizes this. Why spend money on a biased test that you'll need to redo instead of just doing the right test the first time? [1] clinicaltrials.gov [2] http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/ucm172949.htm http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/ucm1729... [3] http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/help/glossary/phase http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/help/glossary/phase