3 ms·

Sorry, you are wrong. Placebo is astonishingly powerful. Read up about it. Clinical trials usually test three cases: No medication, placebo and actual medicatio

Sorry, you are wrong. Placebo is astonishingly powerful. Read up about it. Clinical trials usually test three cases: No medication, placebo and actual medication. Placebo usually works really well compared to no treatment. Not for a broken bone, of course, but for a huge range of illnesses, including cancer. Of course it is especially potent for illnesses with a psychosomatic angle, which is just about anything except flesh wounds. A healthy, optimistic mindset is tremendously efficient medicine. Feeling like you are being helped is, therefore, very important. Don't get me wrong: I am not proposing to actively try to cure stuff using placebo. But judicious use of placebo, particularly in cases where tradinional medication has been proven to be ineffective or has too many unwanted side effects, is a valid course of action, if done professionally.

YmMot 15y ago
I think perhaps you are the one who needs to read up about it more. > Placebo is astonishingly powerful I would agree that placebo is "powerful", in that it can provide surprisingly powerful subjective effects...however it's mechanism is fairly well understood and it's nothing special. Placebo is not an effective treatment overall, and the places where it is effective are things like say pain... in those cases it works by releasing endogenous pain relievers. Ditto for things like relaxation etc... > Placebo usually works really well compared to no treatment Well of course it works "really well" compared to no treatment... Positive thinking, receiving attention from people around you, etc are all things that can have a positive impact on your health but these are not part and parcel with "the placebo effect". Even so, I find the claim that "placebo works really well" dubious, and I'd ask you to provide a basis for support if you wish to make it again. The fact is in the end, the placebo effect is small, unreliable, requires you to lie to your patient....and you could achieve as good or better results with real medicine. It's just not a good practice...placebos belong in research as a control, and very rarely in certain situations yes it can be useful to dispense them...but not in an effort to "treat" people with the placebo effect.

YmMot 15y ago

I think perhaps you are the one who needs to read up about it more. > Placebo is astonishingly powerful I would agree that placebo is "powerful", in that it can provide surprisingly powerful subjective effects...however it's mechanism is fairly well understood and it's nothing special. Placebo is not an effective treatment overall, and the places where it is effective are things like say pain... in those cases it works by releasing endogenous pain relievers. Ditto for things like relaxation etc... > Placebo usually works really well compared to no treatment Well of course it works "really well" compared to no treatment... Positive thinking, receiving attention from people around you, etc are all things that can have a positive impact on your health but these are not part and parcel with "the placebo effect". Even so, I find the claim that "placebo works really well" dubious, and I'd ask you to provide a basis for support if you wish to make it again. The fact is in the end, the placebo effect is small, unreliable, requires you to lie to your patient....and you could achieve as good or better results with real medicine. It's just not a good practice...placebos belong in research as a control, and very rarely in certain situations yes it can be useful to dispense them...but not in an effort to "treat" people with the placebo effect.