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Related Concept Videos

Longitudinal Research02:20

Longitudinal Research

Sometimes we want to see how people change over time, as in studies of human development and lifespan. When we test the same group of individuals repeatedly over an extended period of time, we are conducting longitudinal research. Longitudinal research is a research design in which data-gathering is administered repeatedly over an extended period of time. For example, we may survey a group of individuals about their dietary habits at age 20, retest them a decade later at age 30, and then again...
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Types of Biopharmaceutical Studies: Controlled and Non-Controlled Approaches

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Blind Procedures02:07

Blind Procedures

Ideally, the people who observe and record the children’s behavior are unaware of who was assigned to the experimental or control group, in order to control for experimenter bias. Experimenter bias refers to the possibility that a researcher’s expectations might skew the results of the study. Remember, conducting an experiment requires a lot of planning, and the people involved in the research project have a vested interest in supporting their hypotheses. If the observers knew which child was...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 27, 2026

Electroencephalographic, Heart Rate, and Galvanic Skin Response Assessment for an Advertising Perception Study: Application to Antismoking Public Service Announcements
06:39

Electroencephalographic, Heart Rate, and Galvanic Skin Response Assessment for an Advertising Perception Study: Application to Antismoking Public Service Announcements

Published on: August 28, 2017

Ethical concerns about non-active conditions in smoking cessation trials and methods to decrease such concerns.

John R Hughes1

  • 1University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry, UHC Campus, OH3 Stop # 482, Burlington, VT 05401, USA. john.hughes@uvm.edu

Drug and Alcohol Dependence
|December 9, 2008
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Assigning individuals to placebo groups in smoking cessation trials raises ethical questions. This review explores potential harms and mitigation strategies for nicotine dependence research, emphasizing the need for empirical data.

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Last Updated: Jun 27, 2026

Electroencephalographic, Heart Rate, and Galvanic Skin Response Assessment for an Advertising Perception Study: Application to Antismoking Public Service Announcements
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Published on: August 6, 2013

Area of Science:

  • Clinical Research Ethics
  • Addiction Medicine
  • Public Health

Background:

  • Ethical considerations arise when using non-active control groups (placebo/attention-only) in clinical trials for serious conditions with available treatments.
  • This concern is particularly relevant for drug dependence treatment trials, including nicotine dependence, where validated therapies exist.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the ethical concerns of using non-active control conditions in clinical trials for nicotine dependence treatments.
  • To identify potential harms associated with non-active control groups and explore strategies to mitigate these risks.

Main Methods:

  • Review of ethical considerations in clinical trial design for addiction treatments.
  • Analysis of potential harms in nicotine dependence research, specifically the risk of discouraging future quit attempts.
  • Exploration of various design modifications and procedural adjustments to ethical trial conduct.

Main Results:

  • The primary potential harm identified is that failure to quit in a non-active group may discourage future attempts.
  • The actual occurrence and magnitude of this harm remain unclear, necessitating further empirical investigation.
  • Several strategies can mitigate potential harms, including enhanced informed consent, participant selection criteria, and alternative trial designs.

Conclusions:

  • The ethical justification for non-active control groups in nicotine dependence trials requires careful consideration due to available treatments.
  • Mitigation strategies can reduce potential harms, but empirical research is crucial to fully inform ethical analysis.
  • Further research is recommended to guide ethical practices in drug abuse treatment trials using non-active controls.