Placebos Ethical Issues

participants to these type of researches is attributed to varying degrees of potential risks that may cause serious and widespread ethical issues (ICMR, 2006).
First, the use of placebos in clinical studies remains a controversial topic. Rothman and Michels argued that its use is only appropriate when there is still no existing treatment for a particular disease. However, it is logically and ethically inappropriate to use one when an effective treatment for a specific condition is already available. In this case, a conflict arises from the use of the term “effective” (Davis, 2002).
On the other hand, all researches that involve human participation should adhere the four basic ethical principles, namely autonomy, beneficence, maleficence, and

It is also significant to take note that aside from drugs which are known as the most prominent item where most part of the health budget is allocated, preventing and managing adverse drug effects should also be considered. Studies show that poor product quality, drug adverse effects, and healthcare team errors have an enormous impact on the health care system, especially to patient outcomes (Kumar, 2013). Despite the emergent rise in the number of pharmacovigilance centers worldwide, many developing countries still fail to adapt to these medical advancements due to lack of budget support and resources for health. Furthermore, intellectual property rights and inflating drug prices are also some of the ruling drug-related concerns of the developing countries. Taking into consideration how HIV is managed in the said countries, it signifies the escalating importance of pharmacovigilance in addressing this current unsolvable issues. It takes more than one potent potentially toxic agent in controlling HIV therefore, various and complex clinical procedures such as liver function test, hematology, viral load and resistance are mandatory to monitor safety and efficacy. Also, the adverse effects that these drugs elicit are rare yet severe which indicates for additional health costs. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that

One of the factors that affect drug safety is the route of administration. Studies show that injectible medicines are more highly attributed to adverse effects than those that are consumed orally. Self-medication practices, overdosing, misuse of drugs, and lack of drug sale regulatory control mechanism increase adverse effects associated risks. Moreover, illiteracy, traditional and substandard medicine consumption in developing countries aggravate the attributed risks. Hence, pharmacovigilance programs are developed to increase public awareness and knowledge of patients in how to prudently use medicines to enhance health care services worldwide. Drug safety information should therefore be made easily available and accessible to the public to ensure that the patient's’ role in right medicine consumption is accordingly comprehended. The integration of pharmacovigilance to these measures would ensure public confidence on medicinal consumption (Kumar,