The antidepressant debate and the balanced placebo trial design: An ethical analysis

The antidepressant debate and the balanced placebo...[Int J Law Psychiatry. 2008] - PubMed Result

abstract: Int J Law Psychiatry. 2008 Oct 25

The antidepressant debate and the balanced placebo trial design: An ethical analysis.
Waring DR.
York University, Toronto, Canada.

"...My focal question is whether the BPTD is ethically defensible. I will explore two objections that can be raised against it: 1) lying to BPTD research subjects violates their autonomy and exploits their illness and 2) the BPTD may not enable us to test the additivity thesis with accuracy, i.e., it may contribute to the masking of drug effects that it aims to avoid. I argue that these objections support the conclusion that the BPTD is ethically indefensible."