also help researchers learn more about a disease.
RELATED: 15 Questions To Ask Your Doctor About Clinical Trials
Myth: Clinical studies only use placebos.
Placebos can help researchers learn whether the new medicine works better than the standard treatment. Some studies use a placebo—which can come in the form of an injection, liquid, pill, or procedure.
Placebos look like the clinical trial treatment but don’t affect the illness. The consent form will always say whether a placebo will be used in the course of the clinical trial.
Ray says to reduce bias in a study, the patients—and sometimes the research staff—are not told which patients receive a placebo.
Some studies will offer patients who received the placebo a chance to receive the study drug during a future clinical trial. If this is an option, it will also be on the consent form.
By Cedars-Sinai