The drug manufacturer Merck recently stopped testing a promising new drug to treat depression. It turned out that in a randomized, double-blind trial a dummy pill did almost as well as the new drug. The fact that many people respond to a dummy treatment is called
A) confounding.
B) nonresponse.
C) comparison.
D) the placebo effect.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The fact that many people respond to a dummy treatment is called the placebo effect, which is when a person's belief that they will benefit from a treatment causes a real physiological response, even if the treatment itself has no active ingredients. This phenomenon is well-documented and often observed in clinical trials, which is why researchers use placebo controls to accurately measure the effectiveness of new treatments. Merck's decision to stop testing the new depression drug suggests that the placebo effect may have played a significant role in the observed response to the dummy pill.

The Drug Manufacturer Merck Recently Stopped Testing a Promising New