You are designing a small randomized trial (a pilot study) to compare ketamine (given by infusion) to placebo (also given by infusion) for treatment-resistant depression in adolescents ages 12 to 17 years.

You are designing a small randomized trial (a pilot study) to compare ketamine (given by infusion) to placebo (also given by infusion) for treatment-resistant depression in adolescents ages 12 to 17 years. (Someone with treatment resistant depression has tried many anti-depressant therapies/medications which have not successfully alleviated the depression.) You are concerned that people you recruit to this study:

– may be at different stages of development (puberty, brain development, etc.) because of the age range;

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– may have different histories of which anti-depressant treatments that they have tried but failed on;

– may have different co-morbidities (e.g., a concurrent diagnosis of anxiety)

Keeping in mind that this is a pilot study and the number of persons recruited will be small (thus the number of persons randomized to each treatment arm will be small), describe a randomization technique you would use to allocate people to ketamine vs. placebo.