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Strange subtleties of the Placebo Effect

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thebaglady608:
I have heard of studies showing the placebo medicine works even when the subject KNOWS it is a placebo. I'll try to find those; but I have a lot of feeds related to science...
-housetier (March 30, 2011, 08:00 AM)
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I believe the paper you're looking for is here.  There's a pretty good summary of the general media attention that the paper generated here (Dr. Gorski is a big skeptic of "complimentary and alternative medicine", so that flavors his reply).

I found the study interesting, but Gorski does have a huge point:  if you tell someone that a placebo has been "shown in rigorous clinical testing to produce significant mind-body self-healing processes", then you are NOT giving them a real placebo.  You're giving them something that, in their minds, might very well make them feel better, just like every other blinded placebo-based study.  Essentially, you're telling them that this "placebo" may have an active ingredient.  So, basically, the study is a demonstration of placebo effects...but probably not a study of what happens if you tell people the real truth about their placebo pill (ie, that there is no physical reason a placebo should make you feel better).

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