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News & Research
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Drugs and Placebos
Will I know if I receive a placebo?
Some clinical trials involve the use of a placebo; some do not use a placebo. Phase III trials compare new therapies to the standard therapy used in the disease of question, so no one in the study is left without any treatment, which would be unethical. In some cases though, there is no standard treatment. When this is the case some studies compare the new treatment to a placebo (a substance that looks like the treatment, but contains no active drug). If there is a possibility of receiving a placebo, study participants are told this before they sign on to take part in the study.
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What is a blind or masked trial?
In some clinical trials there is a treatment group (receiving a new treatment) and control group (that may be receiving standard treatment or placebo). In a masked or blinded study, participants are not told if they are in the treatment or control group. The reason a trial may be blinded or masked in this way is to avoid study bias. If people have expectations of doing better on a new treatment, they may report hopeful signs back to researchers because they want to believe they are doing better. Similarly, physicians who are evaluating patients in a study may also be blinded to the treatment a patient is receiving because if they believe an experimental treatment may work better, it may influence how they report the patient is doing. In either case this could bias study results and make the new treatment look better than it really is.
Why are patients enrolled in some clinical trials "randomized?"
In trials where there are both treatment and control groups, participants are assigned to either group by chance, called "randomization." Patients are randomized to avoid study bias, so that the results of the study will not be affected by choices made by those running the study or other factors and will be only related to the treatment being tested.
The content on this page was written by Dr. Marc Engelsgjerd and Michael D'Agostino of Veritas Medicine.
