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Overview of the Single Subject Design

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Single Subject Designs in Biomedicine

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R.A. Fisher, though most often associated with multiple-subject designs, first introduced a single-subject (clinical trial of N-of-1) experimental paradigm in 1945 [1]. Since this introduction, the single subject design has been used most frequently within the social and educational sciences [2]. This design, however, has recently been applied for investigations in medicine that have involved a multitude of clinical and biomedical areas such as drug therapy [3], gastroenterology [4, 5], internal medicine [5], pediatrics [6], family medicine [7, 8], cardiology [9], and nutrition [10], among others [3, 6, 11–13, 14–31].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Central Michigan University, 251 Foust Hall, Mount Pleasant, MI 48859, USA

    Dr. Janine E. Janosky, Shelley L. Leininger, Michael P. Hoerger & Terry M. Libkuman

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  1. Dr. Janine E. Janosky
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  2. Shelley L. Leininger
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  3. Michael P. Hoerger
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  4. Terry M. Libkuman
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Correspondence to Janine E. Janosky .

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Janosky, J.E., Leininger, S.L., Hoerger, M.P., Libkuman, T.M. (2009). Overview of the Single Subject Design. In: Single Subject Designs in Biomedicine. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2444-2_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2444-2_1

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