ContextIntense debate persists about the need for placebo-controlled groups in clinical trials
of medications for major depressive disorder (MDD). There is continuing interest in the …

A rich academic literature exists about issues of informed consent in medical care, and, to a
lesser extent, about a variety of issues posed by human experimentation. Most …

The leading ethical position on placebo-controlled clinical trials is that whenever proven
effective treatment exists for a given condition, it is unethical to test a new treatment for that …

Studies that compare treatments with the purpose of demonstrating that the treatments are
similar require an a priori definition of an equivalence limit, how different the treatments can …

A consensus conference on the use of placebo in mood disorder studies consisted of expert
presentations on bioethics, biostatistics, unipolar depression, and bipolar disorder. Work …

Recent debates over the use of sham surgery as a control for studies of fetal tissue
transplantation for Parkinson's disease have focused primarily on rival interpretations of the …

A revised version of the Declaration of Helsinki, issued in October, 2000, remains a vital
expression of medical ethics, and deserves unanimous support. A strict interpretation of the …

Although suicide was the 1 ith leading cause of death in the United States in zooo, the
number of empirically validated treatments to reduce suicidality is small. Recent reviews …

Studied Treatment-as-Usual (TAU) in a sample of 63 adolescent suicide attempters.
Randomized clinical trials (RCT's) with high-risk populations, such as suicidal patients, are …

WITHIN THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS, THE LONG-simmering debate about the ethical
issues sur-rounding placebo administration in randomized clinical trials has reached new …