placebo group

After two years, there was no significant difference between treatment and placebo groups.

This was about double the 7 percent rate in the placebo group.

For those in the placebo group, the operation stopped there.

However, men in the placebo group saw a 2.99 point drop.

These figures compared with 20 of 56, or 36 percent, in the placebo group.

Those in the placebo group received a drug that put them to sleep.

By contrast, a placebo group lost only about three pounds.

Nearly all studies conducted find benefit in the placebo group.

Without a placebo group to compare against, it is not possible to know whether the treatment itself had any effect.

After eight weeks, there was no difference between the placebo group and those who took the herb.

The surprise was that the same ratio held true in the placebo group.

One year later, three members of the placebo group said their symptoms had improved.

The placebo group did not show any improvement from baseline.

They wanted to give the women in the placebo group the chance to take tamoxifen, too.

Of these, three had used tamoxifen and five were in the placebo group.

The study was stopped for ethical reasons to give the placebo group the same treatment.

But so did 52 percent in the placebo group.

Among the placebo group, 23 percent, or 151 patients, had such an event during the two-year study.

There was an even greater reduction relative to the placebo group.

Absenteeism from work and other activities was also higher among the placebo group.

But there will no longer be a placebo group.

Of those in the placebo group, 23 percent reported two or more colds over the winter.

This was 34 percent fewer than the 124 who suffered another attack among the 607 in the placebo group.

The study reported, "At no point did either of the intervention groups report less pain or better function than the placebo group."

Without a "placebo group" then researchers cannot know if those changes would have happened anyway, no matter which medicine people had taken.