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Sample the Skeptic's Dictionary

placebo effect

The placebo effect is the measurable, observable, or felt improvement in health or behavior not attributable to a medication or invasive treatment that has been administered. The placebo effect is not mind over matter; it is not mind-body medicine. 'The placebo effect' has become a catchall term for a positive change in health not attributable to medication or treatment. As is explained below, the change can be due to many things, such as regression to the mean, spontaneous improvement, reduction of stress, misdiagnosis in the first place, subject expectancy, classical conditioning, etc.> >more

sample the Skeptic's Dictionary for Kids

therapeutic touch

Therapeutic touch is a kind of energy healing. Some people believe that health and sickness are caused by some sort of magical energy being blocked or out of whack in some way. There is no scientific support for this magical energy. It can't be measured by any of our very high tech machines. Yet, many people swear it exists and that they can move it around or transfer some of their energy into another person. >>more

a blast from the past

Prescribing Placebos

October 25, 2008. Muriel wrote to express her shock at the headline of the New York Times story: "Half of doctors routinely prescribe placebos".

"Just imagine," she wrote, "if I were a mechanic who did a 'placebo' repair on your car. Yet that's exactly what they're doing on our bodies!

"Can a patient sue for deception?

"Could you please try to follow this up? I simply can't, having been evacuated a few weeks ago at 3 AM from a burning building -- and still in the hostel, with no end in sight. (Probably an excuse you haven't heard before -- more imaginative than the dog eating my homework -- but this one's actually true -- unfortunately.)"

That's a pretty good excuse, but what's to follow up? The topic's been covered by some pretty knowledgeable folks: Steven Novella, Harriet Hall, Ben Goldacre, to name a few. So, I don't know what I can add to the mix. Is it ethical to deceive patients? Probably not, most of the time. Might there be times when it would be ethical to deceive a patient. Yes. Not very helpful, I know. Should physicians routinely prescribe inert substances to patients with the implication that the substances are effective for whatever is ailing the patient. No, that would be wrong. Do physicians do that? No. Even the Times article admits that is not what doctors are doing.....>>more

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