ArticlePloS one2016
How Health Professionals Conceptualize and Represent Placebo Treatment in Clinical Trials and How Their Patients Understand It: Impact on Validity of Informed Consent.
Article in PloS one, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Placebo in Paediatric Clinical Trials: Systematic Literature Review and Framework-Based Synthesis.Journal of paediatrics and child health · 2026Pooled it
- Ethical challenges of placebo use in herbal medicine trials: multiple stakeholder perspectives from qualitative interviews.BMC medical ethics · 2026Article
- Researchers experience and views on participants' comprehension of informed consent in clinical trials in Malawi: a descriptive qualitative study.BMC medical ethics · 2024Article
- Photobiomodulation in the management of oral mucositis for adult head and neck cancer patients receiving irradiation: the LiTEFORM RCT.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2022Article
- An evaluation of the process of informed consent: views from research participants and staff.Trials · 2021Article
- Independence of Coping Styles With the Patient-Doctor Relationship and Shared Decision-Making in People With Parkinson's Disease.Journal of patient experience · 2020Article
- Perceptions and Attitudes of Cancer Patients and Caregivers Towards Enrollment in Clinical Trials in Lebanon.Journal of cancer education : the official journal of the American Association for Cancer Education · 2019Article
- Putting placebos to the test.PLoS biology · 2017Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
contextPrevious studies suggested that many patients, who have given their informed consent to participate in randomized controlled trials (RCT), have somewhat limited understanding of what a placebo treatment is. We hypothesized that the relationship between patients and their health professionals plays a central role in this understanding.
methodsWe interviewed 12 patients included in RCTs (nine suffering from Parkinson's disease and three from Huntington's disease) and 18 health professionals involved with RCTs (eight principal investigators, four associated physicians and six clinical research associates). Semi-structured interviews were conducted after the RCTs had ended but before the treatment allocation was revealed.
resultsOnly two patients clearly understood the aim of placebo-controlled RCTs. Only one principal investigator said she asks all her patients whether they agree to participate in RCTs. The seven others said they only ask patients who seem more likely to be compliant. Their selection criteria included docility and personality traits associated in other studies with enhanced placebo responses. According to 13 of the 18 health professionals, their relationship with patients may influence the amplitude of the placebo response. All but one clinical research associates added that the placebo response could result from a "maternal" type of care. All principal investigators said they have a strong influence on their patient's decision to participate. Finally, when interviewees were asked to narrate a memory of a medically unexplained healing, in eight of 11 physicians' narratives the beneficiary was a child while in 10 of 12 patients' narratives it was an adult.
conclusionOur observations suggest that the interrelationship between health professionals and patients involved in RCTs could be compared to that between parents and children. Therefore, adherence to formal rules regarding informed consent does not ensure a balanced relationship between patients and health professionals.
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