Question

Discuss your thoughts about the ethics of using informed consent vs. blinding the subjects to the expected outcomes of the intervention. Should they be told? How much should they be told? How would the placebo effect be impacted if subjects are told which intervention is being applied to them?

Answer 1

Informed consent means informing the participants of the study about the expected outcomes. Informed consent is very important in a research and should always be done in cases where informed consent is possible. But, in several studies informing the participants about the expected outcome will cause biased behavior from the the subjects or may cause hindrance in the study. In such cases only the necessary information, which is important should be given and they should be not told about any information which may confound the study. In a study, if the experimental group and the placebo taking control group are not blind, they will have expectations from the treatment which they receive and this can cause flawed results.