(August 17, 2014 at 7:54 am)Jacob(smooth) Wrote:(August 17, 2014 at 7:38 am)downbeatplumb Wrote: The placebo effect is a real effect so can be used to treat some serious illnesses to some extent.
Apparently it still works if you know its a placebo.
Fixed it for you.
Placebo can certainly achieve measurable physiological changes in SOME conditions. Stomach ulcers for eg.
How do we know? because we tested it. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2014313/
The issue is that placebos working for SOME conditions does not mean it works for all, or that a real medicine (which also contains the placebo effect would not work better. And irresponsible CAMers have no respect for the distinction.
And of course, sometimes placebos can be a downright dangerous choice.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12974558
Do placebos help if used in conjunction with efficacious drugs?
If someone takes a sugar pill and a Paracetamol will the headache get better faster than with the medicine alone?
Also I can see a role for placebos if, for example they are taking a drug for a real disease but pain medication would interact with it. A sugar pill would help with the pain and not harm the patient. Even if its all in the mind, the effect is real.
You can fix ignorance, you can't fix stupid.
Tinkety Tonk and down with the Nazis.
