Benefit of Study to Participants

Equipoise means that the risk-benefit ratio for being in different arms of a study are equal. If it turns out that an experimental intervention is better or poorer than a standard treatment, it would be wrong to continue to randomize participants into the trial. It is certainly acceptable and necessary to conduct research to discover the truth when it is not known. Once the PI is confident that he/she knows the truth however, it must be communicated to the participants, and the study must be stopped.