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In 2002, the Women’s Health Initiative sponsored a large-scale, well-designed experiment to study the health implications of hormone replacement therapy. In this experiment, researchers randomly assigned over 16,000 women to one of two treatments. One group took hormones. The other group took a placebo. The experiment was double-blind.

Explain the purpose of the placebo in the study described above.

The experiment was double-blind. Blind means that women did not know if they were receiving hormones or the placebo. Double-blind means that the information was coded, so researchers administering the pills did not know which treatment the women received. After 5 years, the group taking hormones had a higher incidence of heart disease and breast cancer. This is exactly the opposite result from the result found in the observational studies. In fact, the differences were so significant that the researchers ended the experiment early. The National Institutes of Health declared that the observational studies were wrong. Hormone replacement therapy to treat menopausal symptoms is now rarely used.