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The “myth” of placebo effects
   moments in the form of a post entitled, Busting the Placebo Myth:
   Placebos Don’t Cure. In it, she rails against us nasty, pointy-headed
   skeptics who point out that placebos only make people think they feel
   quackery that labels it as “placebo medicine.” Of course, as I’ve
   “integrative medicine,” is based on placebo medicine and the idea that
     of alternative medicine is that it’s just the placebo effect. But
     that is based on the myth that placebos can cure. The reality, as
   “myth” of placebos, including that placebos don’t heal, that placebos
   are a “complete flop,” that no one is ever “cured” by a placebo. Of
   second one. Even skeptics don’t say that placebos area a “complete
   flop.” we’re all for studying placebo effects and determining ways to
   medicine. What we don’t approve of is relying on placebo effects alone,
   that’s a double whammy against using placebos that can’t be overcome.
   “pwoerful placebo,” some like to put it, or The Secret, as I like to
   put it, she actually does her best to rubbish placebo effects as
   placebo effects. This is a straw man even bigger than the
   dismiss “healing” by alternative practitioenrs as being due to placebo
     drug placebo and sham acupuncture (another kind of placebo) had no
     both the drug placebo and sham acupuncture were nearly as effective
     that placebos have absolutely no healing benefit.
   “placebos without deception” study by Kaptchuk that was sold as
   placebo effects but, when examined more closely, shoed nothing of the
     The claims by skeptics that the placebo effect can explain away any
     on a false belief, the idea that the placebo effect is so powerful
     The placebo effect can be powerful in terms of people’s sense of
     health and welfare. However, no one is ever healed by a placebo.
     streaming along shouting about the placebo effect, usually full of
     The simple fact is that placebos cannot cure. So those claims of
     can easily be explained by the placebo effect.” No, it cannot.
   were “cured” by alternative medicine as being just due to placebo
   placebo effects. Indeed, if I ever saw a skeptic trying to do that,
   as “placebo.” She is, as has been noted before, a homeopath, and if
   there is a form of “medicine” that is nothing more than pure placebo,
   it’s homeopathy. However, that doesn’t mean that pointing to placebo
   placebo effect. Ditto the issue of autism, the “cure” of which is
   developmental delay, not stasis) and not placebo effects. Improvements
   react to her dismissing the ability of placebo effects to cure as a
   Keywords: Heidi Stevenson, homeopathy, placebo, quackery
     Busting the Placebo Myth: Placebos Don’t Cure
       Can we quote her next time someone proposes to harness the placebo
       give you would be a placebo.
       Woman: [frantic] Where can we get these placebos?
       1. Placebos don’t cure anything, they just make people feel better
       ergo, Alternative medicines are not just placebos.
       So Stevenson get’s placebos but doesn’t get that CAM is a synonym
       for placebo. So funny one just has to cry.
       Times: “Placebos work… if doctors are happy prescribing them, we
       Placebos don’t have to be deceptive to be clinically effective says
       Howick, quoting Kaptchuk’s “open” placebo study for irritable bowel
       Ha. Some woo-meisters speak as if ‘placebo’ incorporated a species
       In other placebo-centric news:
       Some woo-meisters speak as if placebo were a means to liberate the
       There is one thing about placebos:
       about placebos” that actually did mislead them?
       The absolute most I think I’d ever say about cancer and placebos is
       that a placebo might make the patient feel better about the
       placebo any credit for it, but alties probably would, since they so
       persuading patients to mistake a placebo effect for a real effect
       A paper on placebo use came out today:Placebo Use in the United
     Placebo use is common in primary care but questions remain about
     acceptable and cost-effective placebo interventions.
     doctors are generally using placebos in good faith to help
     studies by Southampton have clearly shown placebos can help many
     The placebo effect works by releasing our body’s own natural
     attached to placebo use is irrational, and further investigation is
     needed to develop ethical, cost-effective placebos.”
       That’s not quite how I see placebos. Has it really been
       demonstrated that placebos work, “by releasing our body’s own
       what is called “the placebo effect” isn’t really an effect at all,
       abandon the term “placebo effect” altogether as hopelessly
       flacks.” Which seemed to truly contradict the notion that placebos
       “Placebos just make a person feel better it they don’t make them
     flacks.” Which seemed to truly contradict the notion that placebos
       In short, saying “placebo works, look, I can measure a change in
       this lab value” can be accurately translated as “look, placebo
       How placebo prescribing may work in practice.
       scientific and ethical status of placebos belies the two co-leads
       loud and laudatory public endorsement of GPs use of placebos.
       on placebos. Hardly surprising given that Lewith heads one of the
       I would so totally NOT go with concept of the placebo effect being
       Doctors that prescribe placebos to their patients should be paid
       with placebo cash. Turnabout is fair play, right?
       compare an active treatment to a placebo, and it is easy to assume
       that any measured changes in patients in the placebo arm of the
       study are caused by the placebo. If you look at clinical trials
       placebo.
       the awesome power of the placebo. However:
       lacked a no treatment group. The placebo wasn’t awesome at all, it
       that are essentially placebos, for example therapeutic touch, that
       that shows a placebo has a consistent and significant objectively
       Thanks for the information on the authors of that placebo study,
       set of antibodies. Over time, even if they were given a placebo
       placebo effect and it had nothing to do with being “weak minded” or
     Over time, even if they were given a placebo that appeared similar
       how that means placebos ‘work’ in the sense of having an objective
       is looking for explanations of how placebos ‘work’, when the best
       Maybe I should declare myself as a lapsed placebo-effect believer –
       to which placebos ‘work’.
       In the sense that a placebo may persuade a patient to go away and
       placebo has contributed to the spread of resistant bacteria, and
       Placebo is an inactive dummy/inert pill (substance such as
       That’s probably one of the more subtle components of the placebo
       that’s appropriate for a post about placebos.
       That is not accurate. The concept of a placebo is very much
       and does nothing… because it is, in fact, a placebo.
       Audio engineers will often rely on placebo effect to placate some
       Re: placebo, qua endogenous opiates cum psychoneuroimmunology cum
       Briefly, placebos do appear to have an effect on perceived pain,
       like naloxone. I suspect the effect of placebos on subjectively
       done deal: placebos do produce clinical benefits and the mechanism
       prescription of placebos on the basis that it already happens and
       So, speaking of placebo effects, and it’s evil Mirror Universe
       that only 30-40% of patients respond to placebos, and that some
       types of placebo-induced analgesia are blocked by naloxone (which
       article on placebos for the first time in several years, and found
       Gøtzsche’s Cochrane review (PMID: 20091554) of placebos that
     We did not find that placebo interventions have important clinical
     effects in general. However, in certain settings placebo
     patient-reported effects of placebo from biased reporting. The
     placebo were partly explained by variations in how trials were
     organs the placebo effect seems to be more effective in achieving
     and chronic heart failure. Placebos also do not work as strongly in
     placebos in which people think they are receiving actual treatment
     (rather than merely its possibility) the placebo effect has been
     observed. Other writers have argued that the placebo effect can be
       Can placebos really achieve improvements such as “decreasing
       placebo-controlled studies on “peripheral disease processes”.
     conditions, from which the effects of placebo treatments could be
     estimated by baseline changes within the placebo groups.
       underwhelmed by the barely significant placebo effects on physical
       help you feel better” – a placebo. The good stuff here is someone
       little better! The placebo works? Nope. The good news worked –
       us. This is what needs to be true if a placebo is to cause
       As for the idea of non-deceptive placebos, pull the other one. If
       the magical placebo benefit of acupuncture; now are you? For the
       2. Non-specific (psychological/placebo) effects:The body’s healing
     Non-specific (psychological/placebo) effects:The body’s healing
       conditions or a placebo, and rarely requires assistance from active
       outside agents. Why would the body require a placebo to persuade it
       The placebo activates the inherent bioenergetic sytem (TM) which
     The placebo activates the inherent bioenergetic sytem [...]
       some sort of vitamin deficiency. Or perhaps placebos work on foxes,
       (Should say doesn’t work beyond a placebo effect, but you all know
       non-self-limiting illnesses than are placebo’s (i.e., that it
       Jackson. But do feel that there is a lot more to placebos than a
       subjective response of feeling better. Placebos cannot cure cancer,
       There are many more in the sport and exercise field where a placebo
       does that not mean the placebo has worked?
     If the person can run faster does that not mean the placebo has
       that placebos can have subjective psychological effects. Nor would
       ragbag of things that are collectively referred to as “the placebo
       above placebo. It would be interesting to compare the effects of a
       placebo with the effects of superstitious amulets like a pair of
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