Isn’t it unethical to do drug studies with a placebo medication because it should not help my medical problem?
When a treatment for a disease has been clearly established, then it is often unethical to study a group of patients who are not receiving therapy. Often this problem can be overcome by adding the study drug or a placebo to an existing drug regimen. For example, one could study a drug plus prednisone for sarcoidosis in one group to a placebo plus prednisone in the comparison group. In this way, both groups would be receiving prednisone, the standard therapy for sarcoidosis. In the case of sarcoidosis, it must be kept in mind that NO drug, including corticosteroids, is FDA-approved for treatment. In addition, corticosteroids such as prednisone have many potential side effects. Researchers are in general not satisfied with steroid therapy as the standard therapy for sarcoidosis for this reason. Therefore, in certain situations, it may be ethical to have a sarcoidosis placebo group when studying certain forms of sarcoidosis. It is recommended that you ask this to a researcher who wants yo
