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Statistics in Pharmacology
Author(s) -
Spina D
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
british journal of pharmacology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.432
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1476-5381
pISSN - 0007-1188
DOI - 10.1038/sj.bjp.0707371
Subject(s) - descriptive statistics , statistics , standard deviation , confidence interval , computer science , medicine , psychology , mathematics
Statistics is an important tool in pharmacological research that is used to summarize (descriptive statistics) experimental data in terms of central tendency (mean or median) and variance (standard deviation, standard error of the mean, confidence interval or range) but more importantly it enables us to conduct hypothesis testing. This is of particular importance when attempting to determine whether the pharmacological effect of one drug is superior to another which clearly has implications for drug development and getting that next paper published in a respectable journal! Therefore, it is essential for pharmacologists to have an understanding of the uses and abuses of statistics. With this in mind, the British Journal of Pharmacology has commissioned a number of review articles to highlight the uses of statistics in experimental design and analysis. British Journal of Pharmacology (2007) 152 , 291–293; doi: 10.1038/sj.bjp.0707371 ; published online 9 July 2007