Is there some way other researchers can discover the ingredients of placebos other than whatever may or may not be described in a journal article? The problems with the placebos described in the post were found only because the articles describing those studies did list the ingredients in the placebos.
Yeah, this is a good point, that previously used placebos may be found to have noticeable effects later. Maybe I read the original article wrong or too quickly, but I got the impression that the author believed the ingredients were purposefully excluded with intent to deceive.
The author does believe this. He's attributing motives to people who didn't tell him their motives. This isn't a very clever practice. But, whatever the intent, omitting information like this will have undesirable consequences.I got the impression that the author believed the ingredients were purposefully excluded with intent to deceive.