Chris,
I was only able to access the abstract, but as I understood it, they were testing placebo-induced pain relief - they did not seem to be stating that the effect was necessarily limited to pain relief. I rather hope one or two other posters would jump in here either to confirm your view of the placebo effect, or to put a contrary point of view. Sheldrake and Andrew Weil certainly seem to take a different point of view, and I am always reluctant to dismiss Sheldrake's views.
The cynic in me says that because conventional medical theory is more comfortable with the idea that placebos/alternative medicines affect subjective measures of welfare, that is the way they slant the facts - but I might be wrong.
David |