Placebo-Controlled Studies

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how placebo studies of drugs and surgical procedures have become standardized to the point that few people think to question the ethical basis of such studies. It argues in favor of the potential and actual damage that can be caused by placebo studies and provides numerous examples that support this position, including studies that have utilized placebos to harmful effects, as well as studies that have specifically researched the efficacy, ethical as well as practical, of placebo studies. It also examines the common themes and assertions among these examples.

From the Paper:

"Third, there are concerns about the ability of all subjects to fully understand the terms of the study. For example, people who have intelligence levels that are less than adequate to understand the logical implications of a double-blind study can be put at risk. So can people who speak languages other than the one(s) spoken by the researchers. Although translators can be utilized, the old adage that "something gets lost in the translation" was never more applicable than to such situations. Furthermore, there have been numerous historical examples of times when particularly vulnerable populations were recruited for placebo studies either against their true, voluntary consent (i.e. because they were incarcerated or institutionalized) or without their true voluntary consent (i.e. they had no idea what was happening)."

More papers on Placebo-Controlled Studies:

• Essay # 143538 : "Placebo Control Trial"
• Article Review # 100902 : "The Placebo Effect"
• Descriptive Essay # 118222 : "Epidemiological Studies"

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