How would you evaluate the following in this case study?
The appropriateness of the research methods used
The conclusions that the researchers made based on their results
An article about a new wonder drug designed to treat depression was just posted online. According to the article, researchers gave the new drug, Z-Depress, to 30 women in their early 20s in New York. The women had been diagnosed with a major depressive episode by an independent clinician. Participants received the drug every day for 10 months by going to a clinic to see the researcher, who provided them with the drug directly. Participants completed a depression questionnaire three different times:
(1) before beginning the drug therapy,
(2) after 5 months of drug therapy, and
(3) after 10 months of drug therapy. The researchers claim that their drug is successful at curing depression because their participants had significantly lower scores on the depression questionnaire after 10 months of taking the drug, than at the outset of the study. They are recommending clinicians everywhere begin to prescribe Z-Depress to all of their patients.