Placebo-controlled studies are a necessity when it comes to establishing the efficacy of a drug, however, their ethical foundation comes into question when a placebo is given instead of an established treatment. This would be like giving a diabetic a placebo to control for the testing of a novel drug while there are already other, effective drugs on the market. In these cases, I feel it is wrong to use a placebo because it poses a risk to the patient’s health. However, when there is no such risk, and the subjects are informed that there is a possibility of them receiving a placebo, the ethical issues are minimized. When there are alternative treatments available, they should be used as the benchmark rather than the placebo.