Re: controling the placebo group

[Tim Shearon]

Paul Brandon pointed out that I may have been a bit terse with Michael's question (see below- he was kind enough to respond to me off list but I don't mind the correction when I'm wrong). However, the questions he points too aren't really new per se. These have been important "ethical" and methodological questions in the research literature for quite some time. It would seem that some have just rediscovered them. Again, I may be over simplifying a bit and I certainly agree with Paul's assertion that I may have been too short with Michael's question. I was unfortunately in a hurry and rushed off a response. It does seem interesting that this newly discovered placebo question has been on my syllabus and in the literature for longer than I've been reading/participating (I started to edit the above sentence- However, it is just too funny not to share with the list as we grade term papers!!! I have syllabi that are older than my experience in the area???) :)

I believe quite stongly that the literature points to far more than ethical questions and some of the issues raised by the results of placebo studies are far broader and more important than just being ethical. What is interesting is that many seem to see the findings as new (ok, I am saying, and it is argumentative, to say the least, that these new findings are based on somewhat of an ignorance of what has been known for an extended period of time. True, there are new studies and they reveal something "new" but it seems to be just level or what one might label as a systematic replication of some quite well documented ideas.)
Tim Shearon



>Michael's question was a _bit_ better than that.
>Recent studies on antidepressant drugs have shown that the placebo effect
>is an active one; subjects' can discriminate between drug and placebo based
>on discriminable side-effects of drugs. This has lead to the suggestion
>that we need _another_ control group which is given a drug which produces
>_only_ the side effects of the substance under investigation.
>Another approach is varying the instructions given to the subjects so that
>they (inaccurately) expect placedbo or drug. Ethical questions here.
>
>
>* PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
>* Psychology Department 507-389-6217 *
>* "The University formerly known as Mankato State" *
>* http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html *

_______________________________________________________
Timothy O. Shearon, PhD
Albertson College of Idaho
Department of Psychology
2112 Cleveland Blvd
Caldwell, Idaho

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
208-459-5840