35
votes
Accepted
Why use a placebo in some potential COVID-19 vaccine trials?
People could develop antibodies from natural exposure to the virus. The vaccine is trying to cause antibodies to exist in more people (and/or more strongly) than would express them naturally, ...
- 13.3k
13
votes
Why use a placebo in some potential COVID-19 vaccine trials?
People in the control group will behave differently if they know they're in the control group.
For example, it's not unreasonable to expect people will do less social distancing once they're ...
11
votes
Why use a placebo in some potential COVID-19 vaccine trials?
Good question. A phase I trial normally has small numbers, is purely sized to test safety, and it would have no placebo arm.
With side effects and antibodies are end points, and a placebo group, this ...
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6
votes
Accepted
What is the point of a placebo in studies where the subject can determine their group?
You're right, the best placebos are ones where the subject can't really know which group they are in. However, it still makes sense to have a control group, and even if a placebo isn't ideal it can be ...
- 13.3k
6
votes
Did covid vaccine studies use an active placebo (with side effects)?
The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine approved by EU and UK regulatory authorities used a meningitis vaccine as the control in phase 2/3 trials.
From the methods section of their paper:
Participants were ...
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5
votes
Are there actual cases where a placebo prescription or fake treatment has improved the patient's condition? I need one or two disclosed cases about it
Placebos are an extremely powerful treatment for many medical conditions. Although you have asked for case reports, a paper published in 2015 by Espay and colleagues in Neurology is one of my favorite ...
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5
votes
Accepted
How do pharmaceutical companies deal with people who received a placebo?
This actually has been the subject of a recent debate/article in Nature. The answer is that the approach varies, depending on the perceived risk for the subjects... One method previously used is to ...
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4
votes
Do experimenters in clinical trials refuse to give a placebo to a patient depending on his condition?
Two facts you need: first, clinical trials have very strict rules for who can be in them. Second, some trials are "drug A vs placebo" while others are "Drug A vs Drug B" or "...
- 3,829
4
votes
Accepted
Did covid vaccine studies use an active placebo (with side effects)?
Of the three vaccine products that have been approved or had emergency use authorization in the United States, all used saline placebo in the clinical trial.
From the Pfizer Polack et al paper:
With ...
- 2,991
3
votes
Accepted
If placebo controls work even when the patient is aware that the treatment is a placebo. Why are deceptive placebo controls used?
The entire point of having a placebo control from a statistics perspective is that the only thing different between the groups is the treatment. You cannot say this is true if you also tell people ...
- 13.3k
3
votes
When would a placebo/control group *not* be used in medical research?
I'll point out some possible situations; these are certainly not exhaustive and some can overlap, but will probably give you a better idea. Some of the terminology I'll use might be a bit US-centric, ...
- 13.3k
3
votes
Why use a placebo in some potential COVID-19 vaccine trials?
Antibodies only reflect one part of the immune response: the humoral immunity.
There is another part of the immunity that can't be detected by dosing the antibodies: the cell-mediated immunity. It ...
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2
votes
Prevent-Release Systems for Opioid Painkillers Vs Placebo
I think you're missing the point still.
The "benefit" column in that table is about benefits of the modification, not the drug. A drug modified to prevent release in vitro (kind of a weird phrasing..)...
- 13.3k
2
votes
Do experimenters in clinical trials refuse to give a placebo to a patient depending on his condition?
Two things:
Clinical trials are generally double-blinded, meaning that neither the subjects nor the researchers know what the subject is receiving, and
Potential ethical issues are considered ahead ...
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1
vote
The placebo effect
The National Research Council has explained that:
“Precision Medicine refers to the tailoring of medical treatment to the individual characteristics of each patient. It does not literally mean the ...
- 975
1
vote
Can a banana peel cure a plantar wart?
Based on my medical knowledge and a literature search, I cannot find evidence to suggest that banana peels are a superior treatment for warts. I saw only one nearly 40-year-old study on PubMed, ...
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