The phrase "a credible control" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used in contexts where you are discussing a reliable or trustworthy method of regulation or oversight.
Example: "In order to ensure the integrity of the experiment, we need to establish a credible control that can accurately measure the variables involved."
Alternatives: "a reliable measure" or "a trustworthy standard".
Conclusion: Sham acupuncture is a credible control and allows assessment of the size of the placebo response.
Addressing this gap between theory and practice, we delineate 7 steps for designing a credible control for a recently developed behavioral therapy adapted for binge eating disorder dialectical behavior therapy (DBT).
Rains in his review about the "Behavioral Headache Treatment" [66] has presented a critique of methodological quality of the clinical trials literature, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses in relation to recruitment and selection of patients, sample size and statistical power, the use of a credible control, and the reproducibility of the study interventions in clinical practice.
As a consequence, it is hard to establish a credible control group, or to use historical data as a control, when evaluating the effects of DTCs.
The WebGAD trial will be the first to evaluate the use of an internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) program contrasted with a credible control condition for the prevention of GAD and the first formal RCT evaluation of a web-based program for GAD using community recruitment.
This new study from Allegretto et al doesn't have the granular data available to the Seattle researchers, but it uses what looks to me like a more credible control cohort and finds the Seattle increase to be having its intended effect.
This all amounts to the conclusion that the EMG biofeedback applied in this design is an adequate, satisfying and credible control condition.
Therefore, it would help interpret the present results to consider the findings from a recent systematic review of acupuncture for IBS [ 9]; in their review, high-quality, sham-controlled trials found no benefits of acupuncture relative to a credible sham control, while patients reported greater benefits from acupuncture than from pharmacological medications in comparative effectiveness trials.
In summary, this pilot randomized controlled trial supported the hypothesis that the Litebook LED device is significantly superior to a credible placebo control condition for the treatment of SAD.
This paper recommends "neutral hypnosis" as a credible placebo control for hypnotherapy trials.
While randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial is generally accepted as the gold standard study design, creating a credible placebo control for hypnotherapy is a major challenge.
