clinical pharmacology
Placebos
Use of placebos in clinical trials
Many clinical trials compare an active treatment with a placebo. The apparent effects of the placebo are then subtracted from the apparent effects of the active treatment to identify the true treatment effect; to be meaningful, a clinically and statistically significant difference is required. In some studies, the placebo relieves the disorder in a high percentage of patients, making it more difficult to show the active treatment’s efficacy. 