Pharmaceutical companies hate the placebo effect and would like to turn it into a medical condition so that drug trial subjects can be screened as having some undesirable pre-existing condition.
Here is some good new, and some bad news for big pharma.
This study, "Is the Placebo Powerless?", tries to unpick whether the so-called placebo effect is, indeed, a measurable effect or whether it is masking something else. Rather than looking at the data between treated and sham-treated individuals, it focussed on those studies that distinguished between a known sham treatment (and hence a potential placebo effect) and no treatment at all.
Looked at in this new light, there appeared to be no significant difference between reports from patients receiving a placebo compared with those who had no treatment. The only cases where a placebo effect appeared to be significant were in those trials that measured subjective changes over a period of time, and in cases of pain relief.
So, the drug companies need not worry - except that it still implies that either the body can self-heal, or that many conditions are self-limiting, both without the need for drugs.
The problem I see with this meta-analysis, is that it tries to belittle the placebo effect rather than recognising that it takes place outside of the conscious will of the individual. Also, by listing conditions as "self-limiting" also places the emphasis on the pathogenic view of disease rather than on a more holistic view of wellness.
More to come on these issues.
Has anybody taken part in a drug trial?
