I believe placebo-controlled trials are indeed beneficial and in some cases, necessary in certain developments. I believe, for instance, drugs and treatment that involve improving ones mental state would find it very beneficial to conduct PCT’s. It would be beneficial because the way our emotions, as well as physical bodies, respond to the wide variety of sensory input we experience on a daily basis is too complex to fully understand. Therefore, if a patient were to receive a placebo treatment, it very well may improve their mental, and even physical state. Being able to obtain statistical evidence to determine the true effectiveness of a drug is obviously very important to a pharma company and therefore implies that PCT’s are indeed necessary in many cases. However, conducting PCT’s does indeed bring up ethical issues. To obtain accurate data with PCT’s, both subject groups must have the same illness or condition. In addition, to avoid compromising the data, both groups cannot be told whether they received the real drug or the placebo. Therefore, there will be ill subjects that will receive a placebo treatment. In my opinion, treating subjects case-by-case is the best anyone can do. For instance, perhaps giving the subjects that are in a greater need for recovery than others should receive the real drug. However, I’m sure this may alter the results from as accurate as possible. It is important to note, however, that the drugs that undergo trials are still under development and should not be considered as a promising resolution to begin with, whether a subject received the real dose or not.