Placebo Ethical Issues

The importance of ethical and legal obligations for the privacy and protection of human well-being stresses the importance of the ethical guidelines of researchers and practitioners’ overall. However, one cannot understate the positive impact of ethical guidelines contributing to public health, including public health promotion program to enhance the quality of health within the population. Furthermore, ethical behavior and promotion of health through ethical guideline have widely been accepted as an effective approach to implement public policies and promotion health program. Even so, we cannot overstate the challenges that are faced still by the certain methods or approaches to achieve pure result for the sake research or pure clinical practices,
In Auguste 1998 methotrexate was approved by the US and the Food Drug Administration for the use of rheumatoid arthritis unanimously (Chiodo, Tolle, & Bevan, 2000). However, during the phase 3 trial of the randomized, double-blind study there were 482 patients with active rheumatoid arthritis that were enrolled in the study (Chiodo, Tolle, & Bevan, 2000). In one year of the study, with a group giving the methotrexate while the other group received placebo, the methotrexate group saw a significant 41 % decrease of their symptoms whereas “only 19% those given place reported symptomatic relief” (Chiodo, Tolle, & Bevan, 2000). On the other hand, the placebo control trials article mentions that the symptoms may have worsened in some patients that have been put under the placebo group (Chiodo, Tolle, & Bevan, 2000). In addition, these patients that was enrolled in the placebo group had “structural damage to bone and cartilage occurred four times than either of the groups that were given active treatment” (Chiodo, Tolle, & Bevan, 2000). Lastly, these placebo control trials pose serious concern on about the placebo effects on the patients being put under placebo