Description
Book SynopsisThe history, philosophy, ethics, and science behind the placebo and nocebo effects. Placebos are the most widely used treatments in the history of medicine. Thousands of studies show that they can be effective and make us happier and healthier. Yet confusion about what placebos are and how to measure their effects prevents some doctors from using them to help patients. Meanwhile, damage caused by the nocebo effectthe negative effect of expecting something badis not widely recognized. In The Power of Placebos, Jeremy Howick provides an interdisciplinary perspective on placebos and nocebos based on more than twenty years of research and data from over 300,000 patients. This book, the culmination of that research, offers practical ways for researchers, policymakers, and doctors to put placebo and nocebo research into practice to improve health outcomes. In addition to providing an overview of placebos and nocebos and explaining how belief systems and context can create physiological e
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Chapter 1. A Manifesto for the Next Revolution in Nocebo and Placebo Studies
Part I. The Troubled Story of Placebos and Nocebos
Chapter 2. Please Me, Please: Placebos and Nocebos in Practice
Chapter 3. Placebo Components and Meaningful Contexts: What Makes Inert Things Effective
Chapter 4. It Depends: The Relativity of Placebos and Nocebos in Clinical Trials
Part II. How Big are Placebo and Nocebo Effects?
Chapter 5. How (Not) to Measure Nocebo and Placebo Effects
Chapter 6. Missing the Forest for the Trees: Incomplete Stories about the Inner Workings of Placebos
Chapter 7: Placebo and Nocebo Effects Don't Add Up
Chapter 8: Blinding: Stopping People from Peeking through Masks
Part III. Why Every Doctor Needs to Be a Shaman and Why Placebo Controls Need to be Controlled
Chapter 9. The Ethical Requirement to Prescribe More Placebos and Avoid Nocebo Effects in Practice
Chapter 10. Fewer Placebos and Nocebos in Trials: A Plea to Return to the Original Declaration of Helsinki
Chapter 11. Public Health, Surgery, and Alternative Medicine: Special Topics
Chapter 12. The Next Placebo Revolution: Helping Dad
Appendices
1. Adolf Grünbaum's Model and a Reply to Its Critics
2. Binary Outcomes May Underestimate Placebo Effects
3. Additivity versus Interaction: A Formalization
4. Balanced Placebo Design
5. The Nocebo Effect as a Smokescreen in the Great Statin Debate
6. The Many Faces of Blinding: Clarifying the Terminology
7. An Open Letter to the World Medical Association
8. More on Noninferiority Trials
References
Index
