Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Noble  If it is difficult to test for then why are you so sure that a strong general placebo effect exists?
Where does your prior belief come from? Was it possible to measure the placebo effect in the past?
What is wrong with the study I gave you other than that it contradicts your beliefs? |
Why are you so belligerent about everything - can't you tolerate a scintilla of uncertaintity in your brain?
I guess the power of the placebo effect has roughly the same grounding as the assertion that exercise is good for you - as I just pointed out, neither can be tested by double blind methods, but in both cases there is a lot of other persuasive evidence.
The logic "X can't be tested by method Y, so I don't accept they X exists" simply is not valid, particularly if you accept the validity of some other phenomenon Z that also cannot be tested by method Y!!!!!!!!!!!!
Put more simply,
some useful treatments obviously can't be tested by double blind methods.
David