

Genetic tests can predict when placebos may be the best medicine - sizzle
http://nautil.us/issue/16/nothingness/take-two-sugar-pills-and-call-me-in-the-morning

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gojomo
Wow. I wonder if telling people they're of the genotype that responds to
placebos (even if they aren't) could help them.

Does placebo-sensitivity also extend to other negative suggestions? (Is it
correlated with, or a reverse of hypochondria?)

Are those most helped by placebos also more credulous with regard to
commercial solicitations?

Is there any such thing as 'false advertising' when the audience is highly-
placebo sensitive? "It truly works – for you!"

Do mass-media ad campaigns improve the effectiveness of OTC medicines? "It's
the strongest pain-killer available. We couldn't say it if it wasn't true, and
also by the way it wouldn't be true if we didn't say it to everyone all the
time."

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lutusp
> When the test results come back, they will tell Brown that, according to his
> patient’s DNA, she should do just as well on sugar pills as on any
> antidepressant or anti-anxiety drug. Instead of prescribing psychiatric
> medications, he can send her home with a prescription that reads, simply:
> placebo.

It's instructive to know that placebos don't work for cancer, but they do work
for depression. When a placebo does as well as actual medicine to treat an
ailment, it's time for some science to (a) find out whether the "real"
medications actually work, and (b) find out what the ailment actually is. But
that science hasn't been done -- as long as psychiatrists and psychologists
are in charge of depression, a placebo will seem to be a suitable treatment.

~~~
sp332
Placebos can work on cancer, it's just very rare.
[http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/95/1/19.full](http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/95/1/19.full)
It's common for drug responses to depend on genetics. Remember the BiDil drug
which works for a much higher percentage of black people than white people?
[http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/24/health/24drugs.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/24/health/24drugs.html)

