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Originally Posted by Chris Noble  I don't understand. How are you going to tell if the placebo does something if you don't compare it to a matched group not taking a placebo? |
Well testing a real placebo effect against a fake placebo effect is bound to be challenging, isn't it
Seriously, the problem with just dismissing anecdotes, is that you can throw away too much. The collection of circumstances that lead to the account I gave you may be very hard to reproduce - particularly in the modern super-ethical context. People used to scoff at meteorites precisely for the same reason.
A perfectly reasonable man I know, who has some heart problems, told me the other day that if he feels particularly bad, in addition to his standard medicine, he takes a double dose of his homoeopathic medicine. This apparently does the trick! There are millions like him - do we ignore them all as misguided, just because medicines are supposed to operate through the molecules they contain, and homoeopathic medicine doesn't contain any!! In fact I nodded my head and said nothing.
Would my friend have benefited if I had carefully explained that after so many dilutions, his medicine was worthless - maybe even going through the calculation with him? If not, does Richard Dawkins actually help people by campaigning against such remedies? If the answer to both these questions is "No", then wouldn't it make sense to do some serious research to explore how to maximise the placebo effect (or other mind/spirit effects).
David