A New Twist on the Placebo Effect

A student brought this to my attention on Monday — as heard on NPR, the placebo effect is apparently getting stronger.

Well if you think about it, there’s a pill for everything these days, right?  The article suggests that people, when sick, go to the doctor, get a prescription, take a pill and get better (in general).  So maybe people are programmed to think they will get better?

But what does this mean to medical research?  What if a new medication significantly decreases, say, blood pressure — when tested against the placebo, will it fail?

Check out the article.

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