Placebos Help Patients Even Without Faking It

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-1 ... s-say.html

Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The placebo effect, an improvement in health that occurs when a clinical trial patient is given a dummy pill, works even when the patient knows the medicine is fake, according to a Harvard study.

Fifty-nine percent of patients with irritable bowel syndrome who were given placebos described to them as “like sugar pills,” reported relief of their symptoms, compared with 35 percent of those who got no treatment at all, according to a published in the journal PLoS One. Placebos are mostly used in trials as comparisons to drugs being studied.

"I'm addicted to placebos.... I could quit, but it wouldn't matter." -- Stephen Wright

I heard this on NPR the other morning. Had to love the comment of the woman with IBS who wanted more placebo pills even after the study was concluded and thought it had eased her symptoms by 70%

The brain is amazing

Mind over matter.

Obamacare is the ultimate placebo.

No, health care, regardless of how it is paid for, is NOT a "placebo"... But thanks for playing... You need some new material--The snark is getting old.

LadyJazzer wrote: No, health care, regardless of how it is paid for, is NOT a "placebo"... But thanks for playing... You need some new material--The snark is getting old.

Actually LJ, I think you would agree that Obamacare as constructed right now is little more than a placebo, looks good, but many companies are exempt from having to give their employees a decent healthcare option and doesn't provide for a low priced goverment plan for those that aren't covered.

At best, you would have to admit the bill is incomplete and needs to be improved upon.

No, I would not agree... But thanks for playing.

The kind of improvements I would have in mind, would certainly not be the same as yours.