Survey on SHAM SURGERY in Parkinson’s clinical research. What do you think?

EXCERPT from the website: As more Parkinson's treatments involving surgery move into phase II clinical trials, (such as CERE120 and GAD gene therapies and Spheramine cell therapy), we can expect increased use of sham surgery in clinical trial designs.

As a placebo control, sham surgery means there will be some patients that will undergo anesthesia, IV solutions, and surgical prep to undergo anesthesia, will have to be placed on IV solutions, and be surgically prepped, but will not receive the treatment under trial. No one other than the neurosurgeon will know who receives the sham surgery.

What is your view of the use of sham brain surgery in Parkinson’s research? Please read the following excerpt from our recently published article on research ethics and think about whether you support the practice of sham surgery in clinical trials. Then tell us your opinion by answering the short questionnaire below.

The following excerpt is from Cohen PD, Herman L, Jedlinski S, Willocks P, Wittekind P. Ethical Issues in Clinical Neuroscience Research: A Patient’s Perspective. Neurotherapeutics 4 (July 2007), 537-544.

Please link to our page, read the information and then take the three-question survey at the bottom of the page!