I'm honestly gobsmacked that our model of health and physiology is so primitive that it doesn't use the most widely available treatment as a first line approach, which, as you point out, is the placebo effect. Why are so many resources being wasted on developing new chemicals when the brain can seemingly perform the same functions with nothing? I get that for a lot of things you need a physical intervention, but should this not be the last resort as it tends to have the most side effects?
Every time I read a post like yours, I think "Do you really want to treat HIV with a placebo?" But I know that's an uncharitable reading of your position. Which diseases do you propose be treated with placebo primarily?
All I said was try a placebo and see if it works as part of the standard routine. Obviously with a potentially fatal illness you want to use everything in your disposal to stop it. Why would you not use your last resort for something that serious? But then that includes using both physical and psychological treatments. If someone has HIV then the boost that positive thinking delivers to the immune system (http://legacy.lclark.edu/dept/chron/positives03.html) combined with anti-virals could save a life. If it's something like, say, depression or migraines or the flu, then a placebo may well cure it and there's no need to prescribe drugs which have nasty side effects or are addictive. If you can get something for free, why would you not do it?
The placebo effect only really changes self-reported symptoms. It makes people feel much better and that shouldn't be discounted, but it doesn't change things you can make objective measurements of - like whether the patient is alive or dead.
That isn't actually true. Ask any doctor about patients who just lost the will to live. Also read about the research about morphine and placebos, how a morphine blocking drug actually blocked the placebo effect - without the person knowing they got the blocker drug!
That's not correct. Placebos work even when the person knows it's a placebo. All that is required is belief that it will work, even if you have knowledge that it doesn't.
i.e. if they see they got better on the placebo they won't care when they find out - they have clear evidence that it does work.
