Comment on: Atkinson. It's Time to Consider Changing the Rules: The Rationale for Rethinking Control Groups in Clinical Trials Aimed at Reversing Type 1 Diabetes. Diabetes 2011;60:361–363

Although in his recent editorial Atkinson (1) made a persuasive argument to consider alternative trial designs for type 1 diabetes, we are in disagreement with the suggestion that placebo-controlled trials are no longer needed in studies evaluating therapies to alter the natural history of type 1 diabetes in recently diagnosed subjects.Many of the frustrations about the pace of discovery felt by patients, families, and researchers confuse the actual facts about clinical trials. Although it is true that enrollment in clinical trials overall is difficult and hampers the national imperative to translate basic science to clinical care, clinical trials in …