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JUNE 17, 2022
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Editor’s note: Last issue’s profile of Franz Mesmer called to mind a story we did a little over 9 years ago. The topic is too interesting to be buried that far in the past, so the following, with a few minor adjustments, is a reprise of our March 15, 2013 cover story. We’re plagiarizing ourselves.
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f there is any one subject in the entire fascinating world of medical science that stands alone in the realm of the extraordinary and the sublime, it might very well be the placebo effect. This article will explore a tiny fraction of the magic and the mystery — and how this amazing phenomenon can be put to use in everyday medicine. The most powerful drug known to mankind Know what it is? Ironically, it’s the inert “medicine” that offers no therapeutic effect whatsoever. Despite that description, placebo lives up to its name, Latin for “I shall please.” Not that placebos always please. More about that in a moment. The placebo effect has earned a lofty place in the world of medicines, and it got it the old-fashioned way: it earned it. Pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars every year developing new medications, and what do they measure their effectiveness against? To a significant degree, against placebos. Such studies typically pit new drugs against placebos. Half the test patients are taking the next wonder drug and half are taking an inert placebo, perhaps a concoction of cornstarch or sugar. It must be disconcerting to be a pharmaceutical researcher who has spent years developing a new drug, only to have placebos produce better results, but that’s exactly what sometimes happens. For every placebo, there can be its corollary: nocebo, the onset of negative symptoms, also caused out of thin air by inert pills, injections or creams. Nocebo means “I shall harm.”
It gets complicated Let’s get into some of the placebo research into this fascinating topic. The January-February (2013) issue of Harvard Magazine caught our attention. In the magazine, researcher Ted Kaptchuk recounts his randomized clinical trial for patients with severe arm pain. Half the patients were given pain pills, the other half acupuncture treatment. In short order, about a third of the 270 people in the study were suffering from acute side effects: some of the patients Please see PLACEBO page 3
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