Open AccessRandomized controlled trials: Ethical and scientific issues in the choice of placebo or active control
Author(s) -
Joseph Ogirima Ovosi,
Muhammed Sani Ibrahim,
Beatrice Bello-Ovosi
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
annals of african medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.433
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 1596-3519
DOI - 10.4103/aam.aam_211_16
Subject(s) - medicine , placebo , randomized controlled trial , clinical trial , control (management) , intervention (counseling) , alternative medicine , scientific evidence , ethical issues , engineering ethics , psychiatry , surgery , epistemology , pathology , philosophy , management , engineering , economics
The use of control group in clinical trials has been universally acclaimed by researchers to effectively help discriminate between the actual effects of an intervention and those arising from other factors. However, the choice of the control that provided both scientific and ethical acceptability among researchers has been a source of intense debate. We conducted a literature search on the use of placebo and active controls in clinical trials and X-ray the arguments for and against both choices in randomized control trials and concluded by highlighting the scenarios where the use of placebo is justified.