What is a placebo-controlled study?
A. Clinical studies are designed to find out if a drug is more effective than taking nothing at all. To do this, researchers often use one group of patients who are on the active drug and compare their results against a “control group”, that is, people taking a placebo (inactive drug). By having the two groups, this design eliminates bias and enables researchers to determine whether or not the active drug is truly effective in treating an illness. This is a standard type of study required by the FDA in the drug approval process.
