Talk:Placebo effect

House of Lords - Science and technology - Sixth Report

I think this is a really thorough and neutral explanation of the placebo effect from the source the Gareth introduced us to. D. Matt Innis 05:33, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Probably a little too late to absorb. Will look at it tomorrow; hopefully the forecasted blizzard doesn't get connectivity or power.

Reason for "might"

Perhaps I should copy the http://jme.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/30/6/551 reference from placebo. When I said "might", perhaps not in the most flowing way, I was thinking of their third case study, which I can make even more ethically complex. A patient presents with clinical depression, for which the clinician prescribes an appropriate antidepressant. The antidepressant is known to a 2-4 week delay before it takes effect.

The patient, however, reports immediate relief of symptoms. Now, unless there's a pharmacologic miracle, this fairly well has to be a placebo effect from a real drug. What are the ethical obligations to continue?

Take it a step further. Let's say the patient, a week later, starts complaining of known side effects from the drug. Now, what is the best ethical course? Keep the patient on a non-benign drug if it has shown benefit for the major complaint and the side effects are not intolerable? Change to a true inert medication, knowing the patient is suggestible?

Incidentally, do look at Talk:Sham treatment/Related Articles‎. Larry has some questions about the relationship among placebo, placebo effect, and sham treatment. All are related, but there's no strict hierarchy among them. Howard C. Berkowitz 05:58, 10 January 2009 (UTC)