placebo effect

Hi everybody, In regards to the placebo effect, I'm curious to know how often the response occurs. Do we have a lot of documented information on how often the placebo effect occurs for every condition? I'm guessing that for one illness it may be 30%, for another it may be 35%.. are there...

In the UK, is it allowed for a GP (General Practitioner) to prescribe a placebo? Someone said that they were not allowed to prescribe something that has no effect, the exception being when a patient is part of a drug trial using placebos. Is this true?

It's an often-made claim that animals respond to homeopathy. Homeopathy's effects on people can be ascribed to placebo. But animals (not being very smart in most cases) can't be affected by placebo, because they don't know that the painful needle that the vet is sticking into them is supposed...

Whether or not it is also a placebo "theraphy" may remain open to doubt, but it is most definitely a placebo therapy. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#nhs3 http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/homeopathy_paper_for_nhs_commissioners.pdf

Hello everyone. I´m currently engaged in a little wikipedia argument (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discusi%C3%B3n:Efecto_placebo) with someone who questions the existence of the "placebo effect". He says that placebos are used in medical trials to compare the effects of medicines and the...

Hello everybody, I'll try to make this short and to the point. I was involved recently in a brief online debate regarding a new HIV vaccine being tested on prostitutes in Dominican Republic. The discussion was semi-hijacked to discuss the use of placebos. My position was that placebos...

…in its approach: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/6/37/abstract

This came up in another forum: Is DeoxIt/formerly ProGold really working or just a placebo? A lot of people swear that it helps to gain functionality on old battery-operated equipment. However, it could also be that it's just the cleaning action of removing/re-installing the batteries that is...

Mmmkay, I after looking thru the other 2 placebo effect posts it made me curious as to what the most extreme or impressive documented example of the placebo effect is currently. Now that I have that out of the way, I want to also include that if your going to post just to argue that the placebo...

There is another thread about the Placebo effect, a well documented scientific phrase, used by researchers and Doctors everywhere. But the dark other side, is the Nocebo effect. Some researchers believe that the nocebo effect is messing with people, especially concerning meds. Placebo means...

Another thread here, as well as a discussion on another forum where the placebo effect was held up an an example of "mind over matter" made me wonder about this. I've seen examples of the placebo effect being cited as a reason for patients feeling better after treatment, or as having caused...

Why try to keep it out of medicine? If anything, I think that it should be studied *more* (as its actual mechanism is not understood, being a subset of the mind-body problem which is itself unsolved) and applied. Doctors don't (AFAIK) prescribe placebos even when that might be the wisest course...

I was reading another thread and a thought occurred to me with reference to placebo controlled trials with subjective reporting. It may have been mentioned before, although I haven't come across it, but I thought it interesting. For example, consider an imaginary trial on homepathic pain...

Suppose whatever peculiar mind-body interaction is responsible for the effectiveness of the placebo effect is also responsible for a lot of positive testimonials about all sorts of woo-woo stuff (from alternative therapies to obscure mystical biophysical exercises like Tummo, conscious control...

Anyone with an opinion about this statement? It may be interesting for a poster such as 'love' (of whom the title is taken from) to nut out what they know about the topic of homeopathy and placebos to start. I'd like to first refer to the poster 'love' and their following general statements...

My paper. It's not written as well as it could have been. It's not as scientific, in that it does not go point by point through alternative medicines and treatments, as it could have been. It's not very polite at times. It's my story, and it's how I feel about those that would offer me...

Interesting things coming from Columbia University. From Newsweek: Obviously it's all preliminary stuff, but interesting nonetheless.

Often used to compare effects of both natural and supernatural drugs, could it be that placebo itself is a supernatural drug or a medium through which to prove something paranormal such as "chi" exists? Before I go further, I'd like to ask what kind of efficiency does the placebo actually...

Hello, It seems to me that the apparent success of much of the woo-woo crowd hinges on the placebo effect. How do skeptics account for this? How shall we explain the often dramatic results achieved by placebos to people steeped in religious doctrine and the like? Can "placebo" be explained...

Jon-Kar Zubieta from University of Michigan have published a study which seems to show that placebos for pain actually cause your body to produce pain killers. http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=4316165 CBL

I got drawn into a discussion of medical science today with someone who made a rather remarkable assertion...at least it was to me. He asserted there was no such thing as the placebo effect. As evidence, he cited a study in the (British, I think) journal (or magazine?) Science (It was noisy...

whew...been awhile since I saw this place... Anyway, I was thinking of something...what does everyone here think of the placebo effect? Not trying to start a war, but the entire nature of it seems a little strange to me...know what I mean? The mind's control over the physical body? And then it...

Apparently acupuncture is not just a placebo effect. Check out the link below. Comments most welcome. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4493011.stm

http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050425/full/050425-12.html Acupuncture activates the brain Andreas von Bubnoff Medicinal use of needles does more than placebos. Acupuncture has a measurable, if mysterious, effect on the brain, UK scientists have found. The study adds to evidence that...

the placebo effect and evolution This is something I have been thinking about lately. I haven't done any research into it, so this is all just thoughts in my head and should be considered as nothing more than that. But I would love to hear comments on it. I've been thinking about the placebo...

Monkboon said in this thread that: His sentiment is echoed by others in that thread. My position is that this is clearly false, and that placebos give rise to a certain mental state, which is actually able to initiate genuine change in the world (ie belief affects reality rather than just our...

Alt med advocates spout that their methodology works on pets and claim that it cannot be placebo because animals aren't smart enough to know that they are being treated or what the treatment is supposed to do. I am skeptical of such a claim. It's my opinion that pets may simply appear to be...

Back when my grandfather ran a pharmacy shop (from the 50s) he and other relatives recall dispensing prescriptions explicitly marked 'placebo'. Obviously they'd just measure out some sugar pills. They always maintained this was GPs catering to (older) patients who seemed to only be happy if...

Is there such a thing as a "reverse" placebo effect? That is, if a patient were to take a clinically-proven drug for a condition, but they were convinced that it would be ineffective, would its effectiveness actually be lessened? I'm particularly interested to find out if anyone knows of any...

New Scientist article showing phsiological effects from placebo http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994996 Salt solutions producing the same effects as drugs!