Are Placebos Really Sugar Pills?

Re:Are Placebos Really Sugar Pills? by crpatino on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @12:44PM (#5140665)

While the article might have pulled a few cheap shots at pharma companies, the point stands. We need disclosure of this incredibly complex placebo matching methodology (for lack of a better term), at minimum because the experiments cannot be replicated by a third party without it.

Another reason for disclosure is the ethical risk assessment. What is to prevent a misguided executive from arranging a placebo with minimal doses of active components that produce adverse effects... just to push the results of a marginally effective drug. I am sure that 99.9% of people in the industry would not do that, but there is no reason to avoid putting checks and balances in place, for the day when some random sociopath decides to push it a little bit and get away with it.

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Re:Are Placebos Really Sugar Pills? by jessriedel on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @01:21PM (#5140888)

Do we know if it hasn't been disclosed in FDA filings (which are way more detailed), or just that it was disclosed in these research articles? Journal articles are meant to be terse for readability, and standard placebo techniques are just the sort of thing I would expect to be left out.

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