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Metaist

Placebo Effect

Definition #

A placebo is a fake treatment. The placebo effect is the phenomenon whereby patients feel some benefit even from placebo treatments.

Sugar crystals

Sweet sugar crystals.

(Photo: Wikimedia)

Commentary #

Wired has an excellent article on the increasing effectiveness of placebos. It seems that this increase is correlated with the lifting of the ban on direct-to-consumer marketing of drugs by the FDA in 1997.

Other research is focused on determining how placebos work. In one study, researchers were able to see parts of the placebo effect in action in the spine by telling participants that they were trying out a new painkilling cream against a non-painkilling cream (both creams were inactive). While the exact mechanism needs further investigation, this was the first step towards demonstrating the participation of the spine in the placebo effect.

See Also #

Updates #

2011-09-20 #