If Placebos Are Standards For Trials, What's In Placebos?
Medical evidence is based on what is considered the strongest possible foundation, the placebo-controlled trial but a new paper in the Annals of Internal Medicine calls into question this foundation upon which much of medicine rests, by showing that there is no standard behind the standard – that is, there is no standard for the placebo. The thinking behind relying on placebo-controlled trials is that to be sure a treatment is effective, it needs to compare people whose only difference is whether or not they are taking the drug. Both groups must think they are on the drug to protect against effects of factors like expectation. Study participants are allocated "randomly" to the drug or a "placebo" – a pill that might be mistaken for the active drug but is inert. read more