Placebo controls, exorcisms, and the devil

Therapeutic beneficence and placebo controls.

Surgical "placebo" controls.

OBJECTIVE To set ethical guidelines on the use of surgical placebo controls in the design of surgical trials. BACKGROUND DATA Ethical concerns recently arose from surgical trials where subjects in the control arm underwent surgical procedures that had the appearance of a therapeutic intervention, but during which the essential therapeutic maneuver was omitted. Although there are ethical guide...

Placebo controls: scientific and ethical issues.

Placebo controls: historical, methodological and general aspects.

Control conditions were introduced through the trial of Mesmerism in Paris. Placebo controls became codified standard in 1946. Although seemingly unchallenged, there are various problems with this received view. The notion of a placebo is only defined from the negative. A positive notion proposed that placebo effects are effects owing to the meaning an intervention has for an individual. Thus, ...

The Tasmanian Devil and Devil Facial Tumour Disease

The global extirpation of the world’s apex predator fauna is consistently highlighting their important functional role in preserving biodiversity and maintaining ecosystem resilience. Apex predator declines and extinctions are promoting more invasive and homogenised ecosystem states, linked with secondary species extinctions, changes to community composition, and redefined carnivore guilds. In ...