Here’s a truly fascinating article on the subject of placebos. Commenter “Donna” brought it to attention in the thread on acupuncture, and it’s relevant to that subject and so much more.
I don’t have time to do an in-depth piece about it right now, but I’ll just mention that the article points out that the placebo effect has become, for mysterious reasons, more powerful and widespread. Drugs that years ago were proven to be better than placebo are now failing that test, not because the drugs have gotten weaker or less effective but because the placebo effect has gotten stronger.
[ADDENDUM: Stuart Schneiderman has more.]
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Previously a lifelong Democrat, born in New York and living in New England, surrounded by liberals on all sides, I've found myself slowly but surely 
September 8th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
The minds of folks are getting more susceptible to propaganda and manipulation. The public schools are, of course, refusing to teach methods of resistance.
September 8th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
I think part of it may be that the “people go to hospitals to die” mentality is waning– this is what my family believes, but I know most of my classmates didn’t.
(I can count my visits to actual hospitals very easily– each time, my vitals were altered simply by *being* there.)
Also, more people are willing to take pills to fix things– comes out of the 60s, it seems.
September 8th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Oh, and a story: my mom once did a cattlewomen’s meeting in the “big” town over the hill from our home valley. The first round after the meeting, as treasurer for the drinks and meal before heading home, she ordered two pitchers of screwdrivers.
After that, since everyone had a long drive home, she just got OJ– total of seven or eight pitchers that all looked the same, so that folks could just add OJ to their screwdriver.
She got nearly the entire group roaring drunk off of two servings each, over four hours, because they _thought_ it was alcohol.
The power of Everyone Knows is quite strong.
September 8th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
In a recent medical breakthrough researchers believe they are on the brink of a new, effective placebo
September 8th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
So – we just need better placebos then. Right?
September 9th, 2009 at 12:20 am
Who needs the real thing when you’ve got hope? The power of positive thinking will need to be going a long way when Obamacare levels the playing field…
September 9th, 2009 at 12:39 am
Nolanimrod -
nah, the article points out that there are limits to the effect; for that matter, even with the “screwdriver” orange juice, it didn’t effect some of the ladies.
(Amusingly, one of the other members even went to my mom after the bill was payed to talk about not coming back to that place, because she was fairly sure they were watering the drinks. So even with a jump-start of judgement impairing drug, placebos don’t work on everyone.)
Oh, heck, I just had a nightmare vision of if we DID move to giving folks placebos, so that folks are never sure if they’re really getting meds or not– the anti-placebo effect mentioned in the article would make it so actual drugs failed when they technically should be working.
Come to think of it, how can they control for THAT in clinical trials? They’ll have to add folks who know they’re REALLY getting the drug….
September 9th, 2009 at 1:45 am
Well, if placebos work, then maybe that could help reduce healthcare costs.
On the other hand, they might have to be very expensive in order to get the full placebo effect.
September 9th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
As the number of believers in theistic religion wanes and secularism waxes, we see increases in religious analogs. We see the placebo effect strengthen. We see belief in secular religions like anthropocentric global warming; animal rights and environmentalism increase dramatically.
We should not be surprised. We should wonder if humans are hard wired to believe in something, God, anything. If we are so programmed we have set a course for serious problems. We have traded reformed theistic religions for unreformed secular ones. Down that path lies madness. Unreformed religions are nearly always cruel and violent
Religion as used here is a partial or total worldview, which requires belief or faith in some operational phase or component.
Mark
September 9th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
I am reminded of “Hogfather” by Pratchett. Extra “belief” sloshing around is manifesting itself in placebos.
A couple of decades ago, I used to advocate for “Placebo Brand” drugs. I thought I was joking.