Ep. 38: Psychological aspects of clinical trials

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Researchers use controls to help them understand what effect a new therapy or drug might have on a particular condition. Clinical research practice favors placebo controls over usual-care controls. Sometimes a person can have a response, positive or negative, to the placebo control. These responses are known as the "placebo effect and nocebo effect”. The placebo effect demonstrates how positive thinking can improve treatment outcomes. Likewise, the nocebo effect suggests that negative thinking may have the opposite effect. But is this information impacting reported outcomes? In this episode, Dr. Dominique Demolle, Chief Executive Officer of Cognivia will discuss the implications of the placebo and nocebo effect on clinical development and ways to understand the impact these effects have on the results of clinical trials.