A questionnaire was sent to 240 physicians in large cities throughout the United States to assess ethical attitudes towards the use of placebos in treatment and research. Confirmed hypotheses were that critical attitudes towards the use of placebos correlated with older age of physicians, more time spent in private practice, less research activity, and degree of defensiveness about treatment.
The major attitudinal difference between clinicians and researchers was found in clinical graduate psychoanalysts and analytically-oriented researchers.
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