APS position statement on the use of placebos in pain management

In the spring of 2003, the board of directors of the American Pain Society asked the APS Ethics Committee to formulate a position statement for the Society concerning the use of placebos in clinical practice (cf, reference 2). A subset of the Ethics Committee under my direction composed such a statement based on the available scientific and ethical literature. We then sought feedback from the entire ethics committee as well as numerous prominent voices in the literature and presented the statement to the membership for discussion at the 2004 annual APS meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, at both a symposium and an ethics special interest group meeting. The resultant document was approved by the APS Board and is published here for widespread distribution to the membership. — Gregory Terman for the APS Ethics Committee.