Examples of placebo in the following topics:
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- Placebo-controlled randomized clinical trials, using strict exclusionary criteria when selecting subjects, have traditionally been used to study a psychiatric medication's efficacy (i.e., the ability of the medication to treat the condition better than placebo under controlled conditions).
- For example, studies comparing an antidepressant to a placebo may use an eight-week double-blind parallel design and include subjects with major depression, but without any other medical or psychiatric comorbidities.
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- Often, people will be randomly allocated to an "intervention" group (for example, those that receive the medication being studied) and a "non-intervention" group (those that do not receive the medication, or receive a placebo instead).
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- Defining features of this era include an evolution of research methods, with the establishment of placebo-controlled, double-blind studies, and the development of methods for analyzing blood levels with respect to clinical outcome and increased sophistication in clinical trials.