Healthy Skepticism Library item: 13009

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

In praise of ... placebos
The Guardian 2008 Mar 5
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/mar/05/medicalresearch?gusrc=rss&feed=science

Full text:

Trials continue of that great wonder drug, the placebo. Yesterday brought news of a Duke University study showing that the effectiveness of dummy pills can vary hugely according to how much they cost. Neither pill was any more than a compound of sugar and hope, but patients still judged a $2.50 placebo better at killing pain than one costing only 10 cents. Only a small group of subjects took part in the study, and the experiment was fairly simple. Even so, analysing how price affects expectations adds another fascinating dimension to that still rather under-studied thing, the placebo effect. From the Latin for “I shall please”, the term placebo was applied to hired mourners in the 14th century who were paid to weep for the dead. Ever since, the temptation has been to treat placebos as impostors, second-rate versions of the real thing. Yet as Dan Ariely, the author of the Duke study, points out, the placebo is also a demonstration of the body’s ability to heal itself: “Sick humans secrete substances you just can’t buy over the counter.” The placebo effect also raises pertinent questions about the sometimes-blind faith put in medicinal treatments which may not be appropriate. Last month scientists suggested that Prozac may be no better than placebos in treating mild depression. Perhaps exercise or socialising would work better with some sufferers. What the placebo effect really urges us to be is both more sceptical and more open-minded about what we blithely call active ingredients.