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The Use Of Placebos In Clinical Trials: Responsible Research Or Unethical Practice?, Sharona Hoffman Jan 2001

The Use Of Placebos In Clinical Trials: Responsible Research Or Unethical Practice?, Sharona Hoffman

Faculty Publications

Developments in medical research have been occurring at a rapidly increasing rate during the past two decades. Expanding budgets, augmented computer capabilities, and new research tools have all dramatically enhanced research technology. Accompanying the proliferation of medical research are increasing concerns about research risks. This article focuses on placebo-controlled clinical trials. The use of placebos enables clinical investigators to compare results from subjects taking an experimental intervention to results from a group that is receiving an inactive substance, such as a sugar pill, in order to determine the efficacy of the new medication. In recent years, some surgeons have also …


Making Clinical Trials Safer For Human Subjects, Michael S. Baram Jan 2001

Making Clinical Trials Safer For Human Subjects, Michael S. Baram

Faculty Scholarship

Clinical trials, in which new biotech and other medical products are tested on human subjects, provide much of the data used by the FDA to determine whether the products are suitable for routine use in health care. Thus, the trials are of obvious importance to medical progress and improvement of public health, and to those who have career and financial interests at stake. But clinical trials are also important to the human subjects involved because the products being tested on them may remedy their illnesses, but may also pose risks since the products have usually not been previously tested on …