5 ms·
You might find this interesting. > Half of the study volunteers were told they were getting an “open-label” placebo and the others got nothing at all. He found
by alecst 5y ago
You might find this interesting.
> Half of the study volunteers were told they were getting an “open-label” placebo and the others got nothing at all. He found that there was a dramatic and significant improvement in the placebo group’s IBS symptoms, even though they were explicitly told they were getting a “sugar pill” without any active medication.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/placebo-can-work-even-know-placebo-201607079926 https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/placebo-can-work-even-kn...
The story of placebos is actually pretty complex.
- cwkoss 5y agoSome of them may have thought the researchers were lying about it being a sugar pill and was actually active
- somedude895 5y agoYeah, I'm not sure that would work outside the environment of a study.
- fighterpilot 5y agoThought: They should give some cash and instruct the participants to buy a specific OTC brand that is known to be placebo themselves so they have confidence that it is a placebo.
- DonHopkins 5y agoJames Randi tried to overdose with a fatal dose of Homeopathic Sleeping Pills, but couldn't. Homeopathy, quackery and fraud | James Randi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0Z7KeNCi7g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0Z7KeNCi7g >http://www.ted.com http://www.ted.com Legendary skeptic James Randi takes a fatal dose of homeopathic sleeping pills onstage, kicking off a searing 18-minute indictment of irrational beliefs. He throws out a challenge to the world's psychics: Prove what you do is real, and I'll give you a million dollars. (No takers yet.)
- mewse 5y agoMinor correction: There were actually more than a thousand people who took James Randi’s “One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge” between 1964 and 2015, many of them live on stage or broadcast on live television. No one ever successfully completed the scientific testing and won the prize, though. The Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge was terminated in early 2015 when James Randi retired, so it is no longer available for new applicants today.
- fooblat 5y agoYou really have to look into the details here. Dr. Ted J. Kaptchuk is a an infamous alt medicine advocate[0] and his manipulations are well documented. In this case the subjects were told "this is a placebo, it has no active ingredients but it can still help you" and that makes all the difference. In a similar study, when patients are told "this is a placebo, it has no active ingredients and will do nothing at all when you take it" they have little to no relief. 0. https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/dummy-medicine-dummy-doctors-and-a-dummy-degree-part-2-0-harvard-medical-school-and-the-curious-case-of-ted-kaptchuk-omd/ https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/dummy-medicine-dummy-doctor...
- alecst 5y agoI’m interested to learn more but I didn’t find any references to the IBS study in the webpage you linked. But to be fair I skimmed it.
- dvh1990 5y agoWhile that may be true, I find it repulsing that somebody somewhere is charging real money for placebo effect results.