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Article: Reassessing Our Investment In the Placebo Effect
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- June 12, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Help! I've lost my placebo effect.
In Latin, placebo means "will please." In medicine, the placebo
effect means if you believe a treatment works, you will feel better.
An icon of medical practice for decades, the placebo effect was
thought to harness the power of suggestion and unleash the mind over
matters of the flesh. The dogma among physicians was that more than a
third of people will improve when given a placebo or dummy pill if
they think they're getting the real thing.
I looked on the placebo effect as a hedge against so-so and
worthless medicines. In my calculations, it enhanced the
effectiveness of drugs by more than 30 percent. If a pill were only
20 percent effective, I could ...