Placebo research

Placebos are funny things. Once you convince everyone that something is a placebo, it no longer works as one...

Thats why I am conflicted on what to do about a lot of alternative therapies that don't seem to work better than placebo, and hence to my mind actually are placeboes. One part of me thinks that we should find out the truth about everything, so that everyone knows what they are getting and can make informed choices about treatments. But to do that we might be destroying something very valuable - the placebo effect they produce. And then again, it doesnt matter how much science proves something producing a response at placebo level, people will continue to go on believing the theory behind their particular therapy, because it is that theory and belief structure that makes the placebo effect effective. So maybe the main work of science should be to work out what is and isnt placebo just for curiositys sake and for those of us who like our medicine evidence based, and also to check for harmful effects of these therapies.

I sometimes wish I wasnt so rational about these things, I would then have a lot more things that might improve my health. I just can't bring myself to suspend my critical side tho, and "just believe" in something that probably isn't true in order to get the benefits.

Theres something rather quantum about it isn't there?