10 ms·
No need for the scare quotes. Placebos work; they're statistically significantly above "no action taken". One can argue about why that is, but it seems obvious
by Filligree 7y ago
No need for the scare quotes. Placebos work; they're statistically significantly above "no action taken".
One can argue about why that is, but it seems obvious that there's something exploitable there.
- dTal 7y agoGenuine question, do placebos "work" for any non-subjective effect? Obviously if I give you a placebo painkiller you might venture "I guess it hurts a little less", but if I give you placebo blood pressure medication does your blood pressure actually go down, even a little? Do placebo antibiotics fight infection? If not, it sounds like a reporting issue and not any kind of exploitable effect distinct from convincing someone to cheer up a bit.
- Filligree 7y agoYes, and yes. Can't give you references right now, though.
- tacon 7y agoThis rabbit hole of placebos goes very deep. They very much do work, and they work way too well, too often. For example, [0] might really surprise you. And just to really complicate our model of placebos, you should realize there are the opposite of placebos, called nocebos[1]. [0] https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/onlyhuman/episodes/real-doctors-fake-medicine-placebos https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/onlyhuman/episodes/real... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3099043/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3099043/
- copperx 7y agoHowever, there are fields where placebos don't work. For example, in oncology.