Trials of new drugs including the use of placebos are unethical by Andrea Leite

2025-07-30 20:19:20 UTC

its use is morally questionable when people could acess to real life-saving alternatives, although the trials of new drugs are designed to test scientific theories and they don’t put patients’ health at risk

2025-07-30 20:19:21 UTC

It really depends if placebos are used under specific circumstances, for instance if there isn’t a medicine for certain illness and it is an urgency to relieve the pain that it causes, placebos might have a beneficially efficent impact, however as it is an extremely powerful “medicine” as it connects directly with the mind, this can be used against others, that’s why I think the use of placebos itself isn’t unethical, what it is dangerous is the person who carries that responsibility

2025-07-30 20:19:26 UTC

I believe that every kind of drug is unethical, especially medicines, because it's main purpose is to deal with illnesses. But, if you read the label of any medicine you will find out a huge amount of side effects. What's more, placebos are often used by pharmaceuticals to spend less while making more money

2025-07-30 20:20:21 UTC

They’re not always unethical, it depends on the situation. If there’s no real treatment yet, using a placebo can make sense to see if the new drug actually works. But if there is an effective treatment and someone gets a placebo instead, that’s kind of cruel. It is generally known that placebo is unethical when its use is likely to result in irreversible harm, death, or other serious morbidit, like cancer or mental issues.

Personally I think that it’s all about finding a balance between research and not screwing over the patient.

2025-07-30 20:21:20 UTC

Its a difficult one, because its ethical if before giving the patience the pill they told them that the pill dont have anything and that dosent have any consequence, but in the other hand if you told that there is no going to be any effect, because the person know that that pill dosent have anything, so I think that to test and know if a medicine really works or if its only the placebos effects its necessar, but the placebo pill needs to be safe. In the other hand I think that tying new drugs its part of the evolution of medicine, for example the anaesthesia, someone was keen to use it with the risk that not function and that is why nowdays all the surgerys are with that, so mi point is that if its another good alternative for something that the “cure” exists there is no something wrong with the approveal of the patient to try it

2025-07-30 20:21:34 UTC

I believe that trials of new drugs including the use of placebos are not inherently unethical. As long as the participants that are receiving the placebo are not under great danger of getting worse in their condition or denying other potentially effective treatments, I don’t see the issue. At the end of the day, testing new drugs is the only way to improve medicine and, consequently, people’s health and even life expectancy. Taking all of this into consideration, if using placebos during trials is necessary, I think it should be done even despite the downsides it presents

2025-07-30 20:21:56 UTC

The ethicals of the use of placebos during testing of new drugs really depends on specifical conditions.

Unethical:

For example, when an effective treatment already exists but is withheld, or when the participants of the test are being mislead about the posibility of a placebo during testing.

Ethicals:

Placebos are ethical when there are no proven effective treatments for a specific illness, when participants give informed consent about the posibility of recieving a placebo instead of the actual new drug, or when the trial minimizes risk by not exposing the participants to excessive harm or risk by withholding treatment.