

Placebos Work Even if You Know They’re Fake: But How? - robg
http://healthland.time.com/2010/12/27/placebos-work-even-if-you-know-theyre-fake-but-how/

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tokenadult
This is a question with a remarkably easy answer:

[http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/placebo-
effect...](http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/placebo-effect-for-
pain/)

[http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/placebo-
effect...](http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/placebo-effects-
revisited/)

[http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/the-placebo-
ef...](http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/the-placebo-effect/)

[http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/placebo-
effect...](http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/placebo-effects-
without-deception-well-not-exactly/)

Placebo effects are strongest for patient self-reported subjective symptoms
(classically, pain) and weakest for objective clinical signs measured by
experienced observers.

By the way, the co-author of the reported study should not have been taken
seriously by a journalist as a medical researcher.

[http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/dummy-
medicine...](http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/dummy-medicine-
dummy-doctors-and-a-dummy-degree-part-2-0-harvard-medical-school-and-the-
curious-case-of-ted-kaptchuk-omd/)

~~~
kakali
Thanks for linking Steve Novella articles. That guy is awesome along with the
Skeptics Guide the Universe.

