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I have my doubts, but my wife has successfully used hypnosis to quit smoking and get over a fear of the dentist. I think it's placebo, but I don't tell her that

I have my doubts, but my wife has successfully used hypnosis to quit smoking and get over a fear of the dentist. I think it's placebo, but I don't tell her that -- if it works for her, I don't want to risk undermining the effect.

stcredzero 17y ago
If there was a way for companies to patent the placebo effect, it would have a lot more research behind it!
- amalcon 17y ago
  There are a fair number of classic studies on the placebo effect, but nothing recent that I'm aware of. For example: - Apparently the placebo effect has become more pronounced over time: an analysis of the placebo arms of various clinical trials showed that more recent ones tend to be more reliable - Similarly, placebos are more potent in trials of new drugs, than in trials re-assessing the effects of older drugs - The all-time classic is the study that shows that the placebo effect works even if the patient knows that the pill has no medicine in it.
  - joeyo 17y ago
    I'm not familiar with the studies you are referring to, so what I am about to suggest may have been controlled for, but I wonder if the apparent increase in strength of the placebo effect is simply due to recent drugs being less effective (with respect to placebo). Or alternatively, perhaps there are more new drugs these days for treating conditions where it is quantitatively difficult to measure the outcome-- think: anxiety or depression not high blood pressure or pneumonia.
    - jcl 17y ago
      This result was mentioned previously on HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=783912 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=783912 Apparently, not only are some new drugs failing to pass a test showing that they are more effective than placebos, but old drugs that previously passed a placebo test might fail if they were tested today. They give a number of possible reasons in the article why this might occur. One hypothesis was that suitable trial patients are not as sick as they used to be, since the really bad cases today would be on drugs that didn't exist back then (which makes them ineligible for the trial). Another hypothesis was that trials today are performed in more third-world locations, where the quality-of-life difference between standard medical care and a drug trial is more pronounced, amplifying the placebo effect. But no one knows for sure why it's happening.
    - randallsquared 17y ago
      Another possibility is that people simply trust medicine more than they used to, which seems as though it would directly affect magnitude of the placebo effect.
- yters 17y ago
  Isn't that most of advertising? None of it really says anything real about the product. It is all about sticking an idea in our heads.

stcredzero 17y ago

If there was a way for companies to patent the placebo effect, it would have a lot more research behind it!

amalcon 17y ago
There are a fair number of classic studies on the placebo effect, but nothing recent that I'm aware of. For example: - Apparently the placebo effect has become more pronounced over time: an analysis of the placebo arms of various clinical trials showed that more recent ones tend to be more reliable - Similarly, placebos are more potent in trials of new drugs, than in trials re-assessing the effects of older drugs - The all-time classic is the study that shows that the placebo effect works even if the patient knows that the pill has no medicine in it.
- joeyo 17y ago
  I'm not familiar with the studies you are referring to, so what I am about to suggest may have been controlled for, but I wonder if the apparent increase in strength of the placebo effect is simply due to recent drugs being less effective (with respect to placebo). Or alternatively, perhaps there are more new drugs these days for treating conditions where it is quantitatively difficult to measure the outcome-- think: anxiety or depression not high blood pressure or pneumonia.
  - jcl 17y ago
    This result was mentioned previously on HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=783912 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=783912 Apparently, not only are some new drugs failing to pass a test showing that they are more effective than placebos, but old drugs that previously passed a placebo test might fail if they were tested today. They give a number of possible reasons in the article why this might occur. One hypothesis was that suitable trial patients are not as sick as they used to be, since the really bad cases today would be on drugs that didn't exist back then (which makes them ineligible for the trial). Another hypothesis was that trials today are performed in more third-world locations, where the quality-of-life difference between standard medical care and a drug trial is more pronounced, amplifying the placebo effect. But no one knows for sure why it's happening.
  - randallsquared 17y ago
    Another possibility is that people simply trust medicine more than they used to, which seems as though it would directly affect magnitude of the placebo effect.
yters 17y ago
Isn't that most of advertising? None of it really says anything real about the product. It is all about sticking an idea in our heads.