Placebos

The biological power of the placebo effect.

The power of placebos  to ameliorate symptoms has been with us for centuries. Western medicine  today is finding it increasingly difficult to ignore the efficacy of  placebos. In some clinical trials with placebos as controls, inert or  sham replicas of active pharmaceutical drugs and even sham surgeries  have been found to be as beneficial as the intervention being tested. In  this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Kathryn Hall  examines the power of placebos, showing how their effects can influence  our clinical trials, clinical encounters and, collectively, Hall argues,  our public health.
 
Hall, who has studied the placebo effect for  years, reviews the history of the placebo in medicine, tracing its  evolution from quackery and patent medicine to its use as a control in  clinical trials. She considers the ways that expectations and learning  affect our response to placebos; advances in neuroimaging that reveal  the inner workings of the placebo effect; the “nocebo” effect; placebo  controls in randomized clinical trials; and the use of psychological  profiles and genetics to predict individual placebo response. The  effects of placebos have been hiding in plain sight; with this book,  Hall helps bring them into clearer view.