The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe by Steven Novella & Bob Novella & Cara Santa Maria & Jay Novella & Evan Bernstein

Author:Steven Novella & Bob Novella & Cara Santa Maria & Jay Novella & Evan Bernstein
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2018-10-01T16:00:00+00:00

As you can see, subjects reported that they felt better with the placebo treatments (a fake drug or fake acupuncture), but when their breathing function was measured there was no actual improvement. Only the real drug improved lung function.

This is potentially dangerous. An acute asthma attack can be fatal if it’s untreated. A patient may convince themselves they feel better with a placebo treatment and delay going to the ER, while their lung function continues to decline.

The Wechsler et al. study is fairly representative of the medical research in general—placebo effects are subjective, illusory, and short-lived. They don’t produce real healing.

Any real benefits that contribute to the placebo effect can be gained by more straightforward methods—like healthy habits, compliance with treatment, and good health care. The placebo effect isn’t evidence for any mysterious mind-over-matter effect, but since the mind is matter (the brain) and is connected to the rest of the body, there are some known physiological effects that do play a role (although often greatly exaggerated).

In light of all this, it doesn’t seem as if placebo effects are sufficient to justify magical, disproven, or highly implausible treatments. Keep in mind, you can get the same placebo effects from science-based treatments. You don’t need to believe in magic.

That is exactly what the proponents of all kinds of medical pseudoscience claim, however. They are happy to assert, without evidence, that their treatments have real effects, whether it is homeopathy (which is just water), energy medicine, or coffee enemas. Once scientific studies show their treatments are no better than placebo (meaning they don’t work), then the proponents claim that this is okay, because placebos work too.

In a sense, much of so-called “alternative medicine” practice is placebo medicine—using elaborate rituals with fanciful explanations to produce nothing but imaginary placebo effects. This strategy depends on the misperception of placebo effects as being real mind-over-matter effects, when in fact they are mostly illusion and deception.

As cliché as this is—the placebo emperor has no clothes.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.