Are Placebos Really Sugar Pills?
asserttrue.blogspot.com
Are Placebos Really Sugar Pills?
1–10 of 141 posts
Re: Are Placebos Really Sugar Pills?
#2As an aside, sugars aren't biologically inert either.
Re: Are Placebos Really Sugar Pills?
#3Aren't the side effects mimicked so that participants won't see the lack of them and then know that they're taking the placebo which will defeat the double blind study?
For example, if you're testing fish oil, you wouldn't use a sugar pill since it's easy to know what you're taking by looking at it. You would use something like olive oil.
Re: Are Placebos Really Sugar Pills?
#4What this article leads me to think is that we need to legally protect the word placebo. It seems grossly misleading to use the word placebo to describe non biologically inert ingredients. To do so is to lie and nothing more.
Re: Are Placebos Really Sugar Pills?
#5Aren't the side effects mimicked so that participants won't see the lack of them and then know that they're taking the placebo which will defeat the double blind study? For example, if you're testing fish oil, you wouldn't use a sugar pill since it's easy to know what you're taking by looking at it. You would use something like olive oil.
There are certainly ways to simulate fish oil with biologically inert ingredients.
Re: Are Placebos Really Sugar Pills?
#6As an aside, sugars aren't biologically inert either.
So, is there anything that could be said to be biologically inert in any and every scenario?
Re: Are Placebos Really Sugar Pills?
#7is this like saying: we use the metric system (small print: but our 0 cm point starts at 50 cm)?