Dose response studies. II. Analysis and interpretation

The primary focus of this paper is to examine analysis strategies for parallel, randomized dose response studies with particular emphasis on identifying the minimum effective dose. Such studies have become a standard for drug development in the pharmaceutical industry. Particular attention is paid to ANOVA followed by multiple comparison procedures with some additional discussion of the utility or regression models. When there are three or fewer dose groups and a placebo in a study, ANOVA techniques are preferred; with a larger number of dose groups, regression analysis has greater utility and reliability. Analysis of factorial dose response studies is reviewed only slightly as this is an emerging area of interest, and further development is necessary.