The Placebo Effect

this article is taken from Harvard Health Publications

Rather than dismiss it, we should try to understand the placebo effect and harness it when we can.

For a long time, the placebo effect was held in low regard. If people responded to a suspect treatment, we said it was "just the placebo effect." The suggestion was that they had been fooled in some way, and their response was inauthentic.

But attitudes are shifting, even in conventional medical circles. Randomized trials, some of them led by researchers at the Harvard-wide Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter, have deepened the understanding of the placebo effect and its various components. Researchers have also used brain scans and other technologies to show that there may be a physiological explanation for the placebo effect in many
The Placebo Effect