This factual background deserves to be better known by Hacker News participants, who often avidly discuss statements about medical research without much backgro

This factual background deserves to be better known by Hacker News participants, who often avidly discuss statements about medical research without much background in medical research methodology. You, your friends, and all of us deserve to have new proposed treatments and old standard treatments evaluated thoroughly for safety and for effectiveness. A really good source for all of us to follow about the latest research on placebos in human medicine is the group-edited blog Science-Based Medicine,[1] which is edited by several active medical researchers and also includes lawyers, pharmacists, and even a reformed chiropractor among its contributors. The blog includes many informative posts about the placebo effects[2] observed in human medical research that help illuminate issues we all discuss a lot here on Hacker News. Some of my favorite recent articles on placebo effects from Science-Based Medicine include "Are Placebos Getting Stronger?"[3] (21 October 2015) by Steven Novella, a neurologist; "Placebo by Conditioning"[4] (29 July 2015), also by Dr. Novella; "Should placebos be used in randomized controlled trials of surgical interventions?"[5] (25 May 2015) by David Gorski, a surgeon and cancer researcher; and "Placebo, Are You There?"[6] (24 February 2015) a translation by a French-language article, translated by Harriet Hall. All go a long way toward explaining just what has been shown, and just what has not been shown, by previous research on placebo effects in human medicine. "Placebo medicine" has so far only been shown to have any effect at all on self-reported subjective patient symptoms such as pain and nausea that ebb and flow in the natural course of untreated disease. If you broke your arm, you wouldn't seek placebo treatment from your doctor, but actual effective treatment. If you have an injury that causes chronic pain (as I do), you are best off looking for the best available medically verified standard treatment, and not looking for any kind of placebo treatment. [1] https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/about-science-based-medicine/ https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/about-science-based-med... [2] https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?s=placebo https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?s=placebo [3] https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/are-placebos-getting-stronger/ https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/are-placebos-getting-st... [4] https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/placebo-by-conditioning/ https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/placebo-by-conditioning... [5] https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/should-placebos-be-used-in-randomized-controlled-trials-of-surgical-interventions/ https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/should-placebos-be-used... [6] https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/placebo-are-you-there/ https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/placebo-are-you-there/