How Drug Companies Game the Placebo Effect

Statbusters

Randomized controlled trials are supposed to be the gold standard of drug testing—but companies can easily tweak the system in their favor.

Published Nov. 3 2015 1:00AM EST

articles/2015/11/03/how-drug-companies-game-the-placebo-effect/151102-gelman-stats-placebo-tease_yz2twf — iStock

The placebo effect is a psychological mystery. The act of taking medicine imparts a bonus benefit to patients beyond the gains from the medicine itself: this is, on first contact, a strange concept, an experimental discovery that surprises but in a positive way.