The Importance of Statistics in Toxicological Research

Statistics occupies a prominent place in clinical studies, and even more so in non-clinical studies. The reason is that no two animals are similar, and there usually exists a considerable variability between them. There should be some way to assess this variability in order to find the true effect of the treatment, and for this toxicologists rely on statistics. Statistics is a good companion of a toxicologist, which helps gather intended information from a study. But statistics can also be misused to obtain results of one's own choice.

One of the deadly sins that a toxicologist can commit in toxicological studies is ‘misuse of statistics’. All guidelines emphasize the selection of appropriate statistical tools for analyzing the data obtained from toxicity studies. Unfortunately, many of the scientists involved in toxicological research do not give enough importance to selecting an appropriate statistical tool to analyze the data. This lecture attempts to explain how different statistical tools affect the interpretation of toxicological data.