Franz Mesmer

Sorry.. submitted early.. it can also simply be misdiagnosis or any number of things. Saying that "it works" as a treatment can and is used by alt medicine to sell people crap medicine... Aka: alternative medicine. The skeptics guide every so often goes into it because they deal with this more than they'd probably like tout it's important in how the public sees it. Granted, I'm not the best person to argue this.

Maybe I misworded. Thank you for the response. I've heard about you on the Opening Arguments podcast. What you pointed out is correct. It kind of shows what I meant, even though I can't words well. It was the fact that people were coming in that caused the improved conditions in that case

The placebo effect is a very broad term that can cover everything from confidence in a treatment to a change in the way a parent notices behavior in their child. There are definitely placebos that lead to a change in the dependent variable. It's also true that the placebo effect isn't magic and it's not limitless. There are definitely things it can't do (regrow an amputated limb, for example). As an example of the broader definition of placebo and showing how it definitely changed outcomes: I worked on a study testing a pharmaceutical for people with MS. A lot of these people were unable to work and rarely left the home. In the study, they got the real drug or sugar pills. But they all came to the clinic weekly for a check in. That weekly contact greatly increased their socialization (for some, at least). Everyone in the study found their mood improved, sugar pills or real drug, quite possibly because we were paying attention to them every week. At the same time, we measured a change in walking speed. Here again, there was a placebo effect. Patients guessed whether they were on the real drug or not, based on whether they got side effects. If they thought they were on the drug, their walking speed increased. If they were actually on the drug, it increased *more*, btw. - A neuropsychology researcher

Stormy Decisis

*dumb ass... Lol

Please talk to the skeptics guide to the universe peeps about the placebo effect. Y'all said that it works, but it doesn't. Please talk to researchers about this. Not me though. I'm just a dumb as who listens to podcasts. You guys are awesome.