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Originally Posted by David Bailey  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. |
You seem to be skirting around the issue of how it is possible to test something.
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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.
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Does he subjectively feel better? Yes. Is he at a lower risk for heart disease? Almost certainly, not.
There is nothing wrong with making people feel subjectively better. I do have a problem with inflated costs and bogus claims such as homeopathic vaccines.
Fair Deal Homeopathy Quote:
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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).
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There are some studies which have demonstrated a placebo effect even when the patients were told that there was no active ingredient in the pills so you can be relatively honest. We do know however that the more theatre you put on the bigger the effect. Put on white lab coats or burn incense, tell them that it's expensive or involves quantum mechanics, it all helps. The question is whether doctors should learn theatre or try to learn what objectively works.
You also have to come to terms with the limitations of the placebo effect. Even with pain the effect is typically of the order of a few points on a hundred point scale. If you have serious pain then you are still going to have serious pain with a placebo.
The placebo effect is interesting and it is being studied but you aren't going to cure cancer or any other serious disease with it. I also find it completely unsurprising that one brain process can effect another brain process.