There's something really empowering about the placebo effect. It means that you have the power to heal yourself - that's really quite remarkable. If you're not yet convinced, here are 10 breathtaking statistics about the placebo effect.
Is prescribing placebos ethical?
Studies have shown the efficacy of placebos in clinical practice, but the ethical issues are less well defined. To answer the question: is the placebo effect ethical, we evaluate the placebo effect alongside the four ethical principles of medicine
The Honest Placebo
There is something very empowering about the placebo effect and the idea that we can heal ourselves. For decades, we've known about the placebo effect, but we've been unable to use it ethically in healthcare. One of the primary obstacles to using placebos in healthcare, was informed consent. It was thought that placebos necessarily required deception - the patient had to believe it would work. However, renowned placebo researcher - Ted Kaptchuk - realised that no one had ever put that theory to the test. So he began a research programme into identifying if people could respond to placebos even if they knew they were taking placebos. The results have changed how we think about placebos in healthcare.
Luana Colloca and “The Endogenous Pharmacy”
Did you know that placebo effects and nocebo effect can be evoked without a placebo; or how about the unspoken ethics code when it comes to prescribing placebos? In a talk by Dr Luana Colloca we learn about the conflicts, ethics and future use of the placebo effect in clinical practice. Here, we summarise some of the key ideas in Dr Colloca's talk.
The secret prescription – Do doctors use placebos?
In 2013, a survey of UK primary care physicians revealed that 97% of them had used placebos in their career, with 77% of them using placebos at least once a week! We take a look at this and what it means for both patients and doctors.