Quote:
Originally Posted by StAnselm  But in the end, the drug works better than the placebo.
This is a microcosm of the debate on "science" on this board. The placebo can perhaps have dramatic effects on a small portion of the population, both for good or ill. The drug will have an effect on everyone. The exception is interesting, but shouldn't invalidate the more general experience.
I'd like to know more about placebos as well, but I won't discount the greater conclusion: there is no evidence that healing is entirely or even mostly mental, hence the approval of drugs, rather than placebos. |
See, to me, this is where I get really jazzed by looking at the placebo effect, and I don't see the entire picture as a case of drugs working better than placebos. That may be an illusion. I think we don't know enough, but the money for research is with the drug companies. What are the characteristics of the 15 percent who get well taking a placebo? Couldn't we develop those characteristics in a larger population?
We can't say there's "no" evidence that healing is entirely or even mostly mental. There certainly is
some evidence for that.
However, I know what you mean about the validity of the drug trials. If a person comes down with strep throat, somebody could spike his coffee with penicillin 4x a day, and no doubt he'd get well. He wouldn't even have to know he's taking a drug or a placebo or anything at all. Penicillin works, and not just because somebody believes it works. It worked before anybody believed it worked.