Placebos In Drug Studies Contain Biologically Active Compounds

From "Study: That 'placebo effect' may have a hidden meaning" by John Carroll on FierceBiotech:

in the vast majority of cases, developers never disclose what they put in the phony therapy, which is supposed to be made up of harmless materials. But in the few cases when researchers did find the ingredients, they amazingly concluded that researchers may have hurt as well as helped the chances of their experimental therapies.

Case in point: In one study "olive oil and corn oil have been used as the placebo in trials of cholesterol-lowering drugs. This may lead to an understatement of drug benefit: The monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids of these 'placebos,' and their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, can reduce lipid levels and heart disease."

Read the complete article about the study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine here.

Related articles

• What's In Placebos? (theness.com)
• When is a Placebo Not Really a Placebo? Maybe More Often Than You Think (blogs.wsj.com)
• What's in Placebos: Who knows? Analysis of randomized, controlled trials (pharmastrategyblog.com)
• No standard for the placebo? (eurekalert.org)
• So, What's in a Placebo, Anyway? (nlm.nih.gov)
• No standard for the placebo? (esciencenews.com)
• No standard for the placebo? (physorg.com)
• How The Placebo Effect Will Help Allergan Sell Botox (blogs.forbes.com)
• Embargoed news from Annals of Internal Medicine (eurekalert.org)
• Study: That 'placebo effect' may have a hidden meaning (fiercebiotech.com)