Roberta, No one is ever put on a placebo...you NEED to know what your child is on incase of an emergency. Nothing is hidden at NIH. You are either chosen for the experimental drug (in addition to the Cortef and Florinef) or your chosen to receive conventional therapy. But, they do experiment even with the conventional therapy. Yes, I am very well aware of the importance of Damon's drugs be taken on time. However, a late dose once in 3 months won't hurt him. I have my son at the Dr's office at 7:30AM to get his blood drawn and I give him his meds before we leave. I also have a 1 yr old daughter. Her 17-OHP's have been normal so far. So, Damon, who is 4 years old, is my only CAH-affected child. BTW, his bone age is 11 right now. We *need* NIH's expertise. And we are so blessed to be able to get the experimental drugs. The testactalone is designed to block the effects of testosterone. I hope this helped... Selena