to see the side effects
sometimes just taking a pill will make people think they are getting better when they really aren't. when you include a placebo group, you can take away the percent that thought they were getting better from the group that was taking the real pills to get a more realistic answer of how the pills are making people feel.
Birth control pills are quite reliable. They are made with hormones that do change what happens inside a woman's body, regardless of what she may or may not believe. They do not depend upon the placebo effect.
No. A placebo is in a way a "fake medication", a pill without the active ingredient. Often used in clinical trials for the "control group", to avoid psychological bias. A nicotine patch does have an active ingredient (the nicotine), and is used to gradually wean people of smoking.
Clinical trials are controlled and paid experiments using humans as subjects. The clinical trials may consists of taking medicines or administration of it to an informed individual or group of informed individuals. The results from these trials are used for the improvement of certain treatment modalities or how to control a specific illness.
Well that is a vague question, but in medicine there needs to have been clinical trials that prove that a particular drug works. Studies need to be done comparing the drug in question against a placebo. One group will receive the drug and another will receive the placebo. If the drug works, there should be significant number of patients who obtain the desired results.
Cooperative Group
After clinical animal trials at: Phase 1 - small group of healthy volunteers are tested
There are many reasons why clinical trials need to be conducted before making new drugs commercially available. First of all, drug makers need to be sure that a drug is safe, this is tested by giving the drug to a group of volunteers in a controlled environment (staying at a clinic for several days) and monitoring their vital signs, their blood chemistry, and checking for any side effects. Secondly, clinical trials are needed to determine whether a drug is effective at treating a certain condition. Drugs in clinical trials are given blind, meaning that the doctor nor the patient knows whether someone is taking the drug being studied or a placebo (sugar pill). Studying the effects of the drug in this scenario can prove whether the drug is effective. Finally, clinical trials are also used to determine the proper dose of a drug by giving escalating doses to volunteers and monitoring the blood levels of the drug and watching for any side effects.
The HSG, or Huntington Study Group, is a group of people who participate in different clinical trials. The sole purpose of the Huntington Study Group is to find a cure for Huntington's Disease, which is a gene.
Placebo is a dummy drug, which is identical in appearance to the drug under study but will have no therapeutic property. Placebos are used in clinical trials in order compare the effect of drugs on humans. The placebos are given to the control group and the drug is given to the treatment group. The effects on both the groups are then documented and compared to see the action of the drug in humans. Placebos are used in randomized, controlled trials. Know more about the processes in clinical research: http://www.crocareers.in
Phase 2 clinical trials assess the effectiveness and safety of a treatment in a larger group of participants than in Phase 1 trials. Phase 2a trials focus on dosing, safety, and preliminary efficacy, while Phase 2b trials further evaluate the treatment's efficacy and optimal dosing in a larger population.
A placebo