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Friday, May 11, 2012

Orac on the Placebo Effect

Orac on the placebo effect:
Placebo responses only "work" for subjective symptoms. They don't "cure" anything. At best, placebo responses are due to a change in perception of subjective symptoms that leads to their bothering the patient less. Even so, they're variable and unreliable, not something that a doctor would want to hang his hat on when he needs to relieve a patient's symptoms. At worst, placebo effects do not exist. Rather, they're due to artifacts in clinical trials, confirmation biases, and observer effects.

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