Attention placebo control in randomized controlled trials of psychosocial interventions: theory and practice

Attention placebo control (APC) is considered a highly valid control condition when conducting trials of social interventions. Unfortunately, an appropriate APC condition is rarely used. This letter discusses the tension between methodological and ethical requirements of an APC group in psychosocial interventions based on our experiences with a randomized controlled efficacy study of a parent training program. To prevent negative side effects and high drop-out rates, feasible and accepted attention control conditions are discussed. The paradigms of placebo research must be adapted to the special challenges of psychosocial intervention research.