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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

The concept of regarding a placeo group as being akin to a control group is fundamentally flawed. A control group - a notion that is very applicable to the physical sciences - has no natural equivalent in psychiatry or psychology, due to unavoidable social interactions.

To elaborate - the placebo group is not just swallowing pills, but is also receiving positive attention, and therefore social support, from those who administer the treatments to them. People are showing that they care. This could make a huge difference, and i would suggest the social solidarity that is evident in the actions of the non-patients in these trials is the real placebo.

So we really have three factors at work in these trials:

1. anti-depressants2. placebos3. social solidarity

Both groups are receiving significant doses of either 1 and 3, or 2 and 3, and therefore the scientific ideal of altering one variable while holding all others constant is not obtained.

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Jeff,would you suspect that it's the color, or the size of the placebo that makes one better than the other?

Do you think that competitive pressures will result in all placebos eventually being, say, big and green?

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