3 ms·
How do you know placebos work? You can’t do a randomized placebo controlled trial to test them.
by jameshart 3y ago
How do you know placebos work? You can’t do a randomized placebo controlled trial to test them.
- siegecraft 3y agoWhy not? Give a bunch of people actual placebos, half are told it won't work, half are told it will, see what happens?
- jameshart 3y agoWhich half is the placebo?
- ars 3y agoThe literature on the effectiveness of placebo's is extensive and not in doubt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo#Effects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo#Effects
- jameshart 3y agoConsidering that link points directly to a paragraph the says > A 2001 Cochrane Collaboration meta-analysis of the placebo effect looked at trials in 40 different medical conditions, and concluded the only one where it had been shown to have a significant effect was for pain.[14] That's because placebos do not appear to affect the actual diseases, or outcomes that are not dependent on a patient's perception I'd consider that a somewhat misleading citation for your assertion.
- ars 3y agoAnd? If you take a placebo for a cold, and you feel better than you would without the placebo - what's the issue? If you notice they don't make these things for any serious illness, they are all for things where the goal is simply to feel better, while the disease runs its ordinary course.