In this lesson, we review an extensive amount of research on placebo effects, and discuss practical implications for health and research decisions.
Be prepared to discuss how therapeutic context is related to placebo effects (including sham surgery) and the findings and implications from extensive research, plus how drug makers and vaccine researchers have responded to this information.
Use the example of wound healing to examine how the body’s intelligence heals us. Discuss the need to optimize conditions to activate healing, and factors that serve as barriers to healing. Define and discuss this statement: “Research demonstrates that placebo effects are genuine psychobiological phenomena attributable to the overall therapeutic context, and that placebo effects can be robust in both laboratory and clinical settings.” Define nocebo effects and non-deceptive placebos. Provide findings from more than 10 research articles on placebo effects (including non-deceptive placebos) and from another 10 studies on sham surgery. Provide considerations for why placebo effects happen. Discuss why drug developers seek to minimize awareness of placebo effects and how ethical considerations have been mis-represented. Provide evidence showing multiple ways in which vaccine researchers use “statistical sleight of hand,” claiming to use placebos when in fact researchers use “comparators” which are not biologically inert.
belief effect, comparator (in clinical trials), nocebo effect, open-label placebo (OLP), placebo, placebo effects, honest placebo, non-deceptive placebo, sham surgery / sham procedure
Welcome to Wellness Resource Center and Yoga Teacher Central, serving providers, teachers, coaches, and trainers since 2012. Get what you need when you need it: research curations and evidence-based teachings at your fingertips.
Join now for access to our ad-free resources.