The Placebo Effect: Is it real, is it ethical?

[blutoski]

No- that is called priming the subjects.

Basically, although I think the poster might have meant that bias from priming is a mechanism that creates different outomes in a placebo group versus no priming in a baseline group. This is probably true.

Having said that: priming is not the exclusive domain of healthfraud.
It's a universal psychological phenomenon that they leverage to misrepresent benefits.

 

[Reality Check]

Basically, although I think the poster might have meant that bias from priming is a mechanism that creates different outomes in a placebo group versus no priming in a baseline group..

In that trial the priming was for all participants but a group was given placebos marked as placebos. So there could be an enhanced placebo effect for that group. The later trial got around that by giving a group doses marked as "placebo or medicine".

 

[stanfr]

Personally, I believe that a 'placebo' can have real phisiological effects. There is a whole body of studies now demonstrating that stress (mental or physical) can greatly affect one's health, making it more likely one would get anything from acne to heart disease. The function of the placebo is to eliminate that stress. if you believe something will help you, it will reduce your stress, and therefore even though it has no inherent mechanism, your reduced stress will result in better health. I don't believe it is ethical however.
My two pennies.

 

[mutile]

Another problem is that people will report feeling better after a placebo even if they don't.