title: Ethical considerations in placebo-controlled randomised clinical trials.
abstract: CONCLUSIONS
  Ethical considerations in standard medical care and clinical research are underpinnings to quality medicine. Similarly, the placebo-controlled double-blind randomised clinical trial is the gold standard for medical research and fundamental to the development of evidence-based medicine. Researchers and clinicians are challenged by ethical concerns in the informed consent with a need to maximise understanding and minimise therapeutic misconception. This editorial expands on themes raised by Chenet al's article 'Disclosing the Potential Impact of Placebo Controls in Antidepressant Trials' and serves as an invitation for further submissions toBJPsych Openon ethics, research design and informed consent.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  None.
  © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2015. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.
authors.affiliation: , MD, MRCPsych, Departments of Psychiatry, Neurology and Anesthesiology, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 125 Paterson Street, Suite #2200, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA. Email: kaufmakr@rwjms.rutgers.edu.
authors.forename: Kenneth R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Kaufman