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Related Concept Videos

Blinding01:11

Blinding

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Blinding is a commonly used method of not telling participants which treatment a subject is receiving. Blinding is a critical part of a randomized control trial or RCT. It reduces the bias that affects the results. In an RCT, blinding is used in the form of a placebo. A placebo effect occurs when untreated subjects falsely believe they have received the treatment and report improved symptoms. A placebo or a dummy treatment is administered to subjects to negate the bias caused by such an effect.
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The Placebo Effect01:54

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The placebo effect occurs when people's expectations or beliefs influence or determine their experience in a given situation. In other words, simply expecting something to happen can actually make it happen.
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Blind Procedures02:07

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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...
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Biopharmaceutical studies constitute a vital field aiming to enhance drug delivery methods and refine therapeutic approaches, drawing upon diverse interdisciplinary knowledge. In research methodologies, the choice between controlled and non-controlled studies significantly influences the study's reliability and accuracy.
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Regression Toward the Mean01:52

Regression Toward the Mean

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Regression toward the mean (“RTM”) is a phenomenon in which extremely high or low values—for example, and individual’s blood pressure at a particular moment—appear closer to a group’s average upon remeasuring. Although this statistical peculiarity is the result of random error and chance, it has been problematic across various medical, scientific, financial and psychological applications. In particular, RTM, if not taken into account, can interfere when...
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Randomized Experiments01:13

Randomized Experiments

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The randomization process involves assigning study participants randomly to experimental or control groups based on their probability of being equally assigned. Randomization is meant to eliminate selection bias and balance known and unknown confounding factors so that the control group is similar to the treatment group as much as possible. A computer program and a random number generator can be used to assign participants to groups in a way that minimizes bias.
Simple randomization
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 1, 2026

How to Study Placebo Responses in Motion Sickness with a Rotation Chair Paradigm in Healthy Participants
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Placebo by Proxy in Neonatal Randomized Controlled Trials: Does It Matter?

Tiziana L Burkart1, Andrea Kraus2, Brigitte Koller3

  • 1Department of Neonatology, University Hospital Zürich, 8091 Zürich, Switzerland. tiziana.burkart@gmail.com.

Children (Basel, Switzerland)
|May 31, 2017
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Parental expectations, or placebo by proxy, showed a small, clinically irrelevant effect on preterm infants' long-term outcomes. This randomized controlled trial found no significant difference in IQ scores at age 5 between groups. Further research is needed to confirm these findings.

Keywords:
long-term outcomeplacebo by proxypreterm infantsrandomized controlled trial

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Area of Science:

  • Neonatal Medicine
  • Psychoneuroimmunology
  • Clinical Psychology

Background:

  • Placebo effects, particularly 'placebo by proxy' stemming from caregiver expectations, are under-researched in clinical settings.
  • Understanding parental expectations' impact is crucial for interpreting treatment outcomes in vulnerable populations like preterm infants.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the clinical relevance of placebo by proxy in very preterm infants.
  • To determine if parental belief in verum (active treatment) versus placebo administration affects infant outcomes at 5 years of age.

Main Methods:

  • A randomized controlled trial (RCT) comparing very preterm infants whose parents believed they received verum (PAV) versus placebo (PAP).
  • Primary outcome: IQ at 5 years of age.
  • Equivalence margins set at ±5 IQ points; analysis adjusted for covariates (SES, head circumference, sepsis).

Main Results:

  • The confidence interval for the mean IQ difference between PAV and PAP groups was [-3.04, 5.67], not falling within the ±5-point equivalence margins.
  • The study did not demonstrate equivalence between the groups based on the pre-specified criteria.
  • A small, clinically irrelevant effect favoring the PAV group was suggested, but not statistically confirmed.

Conclusions:

  • Parental expectations appear to have a minimal, clinically insignificant impact on the long-term cognitive outcomes of very preterm infants.
  • The study did not establish equivalence, indicating a need for caution in interpreting placebo by proxy effects.
  • Larger-scale studies are recommended to validate these findings and further elucidate the role of parental expectations in infant therapy response.