The Mysterious Placebo
   placebo effect. Research shows that the placebo effect can be greater
   treatments work. Skeptics often use the placebo effect-a response to
   and fuzzy thinkers, don't truly understand what the placebo effect is.
   Spontaneous remission and the placebo effect, which are known as
   H. K. Beecher's seminal paper "The Powerful Placebo" (Beecher 1955) is
   average placebo response rate of 32.5 percent. From this figure comes
   population responds to placebos. But this is a myth. A recent paper
   expectations, the power of nonspecific effects (placebos) far exceeds
   A number of other myths are associated with placebos. Try to answer the
    1. Does a positive response to a placebo mean the patient's problem is
    2. Does a patient have to believe in the therapy for a placebo effect
    3. Are placebos harmless?
   The answer to all three questions is no. Placebo responses can occur in
   explain a portion of the placebo effect (Jarvis 1990). It appears that
   Contrary to popular belief, placebos can be harmful. Placebo responses
   dependent on nonscientific practitioners who employ placebo therapies.
   The use of placebos can undermine the doctor-patient relationship by
   the placebo effect in clinical practice: "I am against people being
   misled. The quack who relies on a placebo effect is also pretending he
   In addition, placebos "need not always be beneficial and may be frankly
   reactions) have resulted from placebo therapy. More subtle but equally
   important negative placebo effects must occur when the physician by
     * Beecher, H. K. 1955. The powerful placebo. JADA 159:1602-1606.
       placebo. In Clinical Pharmacology, ed. by K. L. Melmon and H. F.