Geoff Mosley<[log in to unmask]> writes:
<< This discussion reminds me of a recent article in the New England Journal
of Medicine regarding the use of placebos. After an exhaustive review of the
literature it was concluded that placebos really do not have the effects that
have traditionally been attributed to them. Instead, it seems that the
natural progression of the
patients' condition/disease, which normally follows peaks and valleys of
improvement and decline, leads to the
misperception that the placebo (or any ineffective treatment for that matter)
has had an effect. >>
*** How does this article explain the results of some bogus surgery on
cardiac patients? For the moment I cannot locate the actual reference, but
it described the use of bypass surgery on one group of patients with a
matched group of patients who were subjected to a superficial incision of the
chest which made it appear as if bypass surgery actually had been performed.
The results after the same period of time showed that both groups of
patients, according to various tests, had recovered to the same extent.
There is also a considerable body of other evidence that the placebo effect
(in a positive and negative sense) does occur in many medical and other human
performance situations.
One study, obviously of limited scope, does not necessarily negate all the
research on placebos which show that mental factors definitely can exert a
very significant change in physiological status. Would it be possible to
post some of the more important parts of that article here, so that we can
see what it actually stated?
Dr Mel C Siff
Denver, USA
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Supertraining/
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