Poll: The Placebo affect

[Night Eyes]

Ok so here's you chance to tell us what you know about the Placebo affect.

does it work? do you think its rubbish?

do you think it can help people with physical problems if their mind believes its taking a medicine?

[Freya]

I believe in it very strongly. But there are still some mainstream scientists who are skeptical of it. Back in 2001, "in a paper titled, 'Is the Placebo Powerless?' two Danish researchers reviewed 114 published studies involving 7,500 patients and questioned both the research methods and the short duration of most placebo studies."



The effects of placebo are actually hard to ignore. According to New Scientist, "The power of placebos has been shown in many settings. In one study from 2002, 60 people were even given fake surgery to treat arthritic knees. An elaborate ruse involving doctored footage on a video screen convinced them that they had full surgery, whereas in reality they had only had the skin on their knees cut. Even so, their symptoms improved, and they recovered as well as those who had real surgery. The improvement lasted at least a year." ("How You Can Harness the Placebo Effect") The placebo effect even works with video games - if players think they have new updates that aren't actually there, they will still enjoy the game more (QP, posay, PR, I'm looking at you: "The Placebo Effect Works in Video Games Too"). The placebo effect may in fact be explained by evolution, as New Scientist reports.

I would actually be skeptical of people who are skeptical of the placebo effect, not of the effect itself.

See also

http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/treatmenttypes/placebo-effect

http://harvardmagazine.com/2013/01/the-placebo-phenomenon