I think that an article like this that doesn't emphasize the fact that a placebo is still treatment is remiss. The naive reading is that surgery is useless, but

I think that an article like this that doesn't emphasize the fact that a placebo is still treatment is remiss. The naive reading is that surgery is useless, but that is not at all the conclusion if compared to a placebo. The neuroscience of placebo effect(s) are super cool and quite difficult to study. Pain-related ones which involve release of endogenous opioid receptor agonists are fairly well mapped out, and similar circuits for blood pressure and other physiological functions controlled by the brain can be imagined. I've read about placebo antibiotics, though, which presumably involve the immune system in cool ways. There have been big investments by NIH into the idea that we should be treating a lot more disease with neurostimulation, but I think so far this has not paid off...