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Journal investigating placebo effect study following Retraction Watch inquiry
https://retractionwatch.com/2025/05/09/journal-investigating-placebo-effect-study-harald-walach-journal-clinical-epidemiology/An Elsevier journal is investigating a paper by a controversial author after a Retraction Watch inquiry about the article. The article concluded that “placebo effects have a significant impact on observed outcomes” in both placebo and treatment groups in clinical trials.
The senior author of the paper is Harald Walach, whose name may be familiar. In one paper, now retracted, Walach and his coauthors claimed COVID-19 vaccines killed two people for every three deaths they prevented. In a different paper, also retracted, Walach and his colleagues claimed children’s masks trap carbon dioxide; they later republished the article in a different journal. He lost two papers and a university affiliation in 2021.
One of his latest papers, “Treatment effects in pharmacological clinical randomized controlled trials are mainly due to placebo,” appeared online December 27 in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology.
Walach’s group analyzed 30 clinical trials for each of five conditions — osteoarthritis, depression, migraines, sleep disorders and irritable bowel syndrome — and analyzed the improvement in both the placebo and treatment groups. The authors conclude “that the placebo-effect is the major driver of treatment effects in clinical trials that alone explains 69% of the variance.”
Stephen Rhodes, a researcher at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center in Ohio, criticized the study in a letter to the editor in February, citing a “number of errors that lead to some sweeping conclusions.” In the letter, Rhodes wrote those leaps “reflect a misunderstanding of what a ‘treatment effect’ is,” noting that in a placebo-controlled trial, the measure can’t be “due to placebo.”
. . .
The senior author of the paper is Harald Walach, whose name may be familiar. In one paper, now retracted, Walach and his coauthors claimed COVID-19 vaccines killed two people for every three deaths they prevented. In a different paper, also retracted, Walach and his colleagues claimed children’s masks trap carbon dioxide; they later republished the article in a different journal. He lost two papers and a university affiliation in 2021.
One of his latest papers, “Treatment effects in pharmacological clinical randomized controlled trials are mainly due to placebo,” appeared online December 27 in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology.
Walach’s group analyzed 30 clinical trials for each of five conditions — osteoarthritis, depression, migraines, sleep disorders and irritable bowel syndrome — and analyzed the improvement in both the placebo and treatment groups. The authors conclude “that the placebo-effect is the major driver of treatment effects in clinical trials that alone explains 69% of the variance.”
Stephen Rhodes, a researcher at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center in Ohio, criticized the study in a letter to the editor in February, citing a “number of errors that lead to some sweeping conclusions.” In the letter, Rhodes wrote those leaps “reflect a misunderstanding of what a ‘treatment effect’ is,” noting that in a placebo-controlled trial, the measure can’t be “due to placebo.”
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It ain't even pseudo science. It's malpractice and probably malevolence. Quick - hire him at HHS!