Should Placebo Ingredients Be Disclosed In Trials?

When we talk about the placebo effect, the assumption is that the dummy pill is essentially identical to the real medication, but lacks the active ingredient. But what if that wasn’t so? What if the placebo contained something that might skew results? And how would anyone know if the the ingredients in a placebo are not disclosed? Which leads us to another question – should the contents be disclosed?

However, they also note that bias favoring the active drug can occur. For instance, a study of a cancer treatment using a placebo pill that contained lactose and there were few gastrointestinal problems in the experimental group. “Because lactose intolerance is prevalent in cancer, promoted by both chemotherapy and radiation therapy, adverse effects of the lactose placebo to gastrointestinal symptoms may have contributed to the appearance of benefit from the drug.

The “failure to describe placebo ingredients breaches basic scientific standards of rigor,” write the authors, who were led by Beatrice Golomb, a professor of medicine at the University of California at San Diego.

http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/10/should-placebo-ingredients-be-disclosed-in-trials/

Eddie