That's why you do double blind studies. The pill bottles should be put in coded bags, and handed to the subjects by neutral third parties.
Paul Brandon Emeritus Professor of Psychology Minnesota State University, Mankato [email protected] On Jan 3, 2011, at 2:39 PM, Rick Froman wrote: > So what is the adequate control group for a study where the placebo is the > treatment? In this case, they use "no treatment" as the control so have they > really proven anything beyond the fact that a physician instructing you to > take a placebo (wink, wink), may have a placebo effect? What they actually > told the patients was that they were "like sugar pills" and that they had "no > active ingredient" (isn't that almost the definition of homeopathic > "medications"?) and that they were made from inert substances. They printed > the word "placebo" on the bottle. This assumes the average person knows the > meaning of "inert" and "placebo". They also told the patients "they didn't > have to believe in the placebo effect" which makes it sound as if there is an > effect to believe in. Evidently many of the doctors only did this sheepishly > which may have also sent a double message to the patient (this won't help but > take it anyway) which the patients may have interpreted in many different > ways. > > Rick > > Dr. Rick Froman, Chair > Division of Humanities and Social Sciences > John Brown University > Siloam Springs, AR 72761 > [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> > ________________________________ > From: Pollak, Edward [[email protected]] > Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 2:11 PM > To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) > Subject: [tips] Sham pills may help us—even without the sham > > > This is not surprising to me given that classical conditioning can produce a > "placebo effect" in rats. In fact, now that I'm thinking about it, why can't > any (classically) conditioned stimulus but regarded as a placebo? > > Ed > > > Sham pills may help us—even without the sham > > Sham pills, known as place bos, have been used in count less med i cal stud > ies for dec ades. By com par ing their ef fects to those of real med icines, > re search ers can dis count the pos si bil ity that the true drugs work mere > ly be cause the idea of hav ing been treated makes us feel bet ter. > > But re search ers say they now seem to have made a sur prise dis covery. Not > only do the fake pills tru ly make some pa tients feel im proved—that much > was al ready known—but they can even work when the doc tors drop any pre > tense that this is real med i cine. --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=7633 or send a blank email to leave-7633-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
