Aug 30, 2009
Placebo Rising?
A post to the Freakonomics blog at The New York Times reports that the placebo effect has been much stronger than expected in several recent trials. So much stronger, in fact, that it has torpedoed several prominent new drugs. Which obviously has the drug companies worried. The bttom line? “Drug companies could be victims of their own success in this instance: we’ve become so convinced of the power of modern medicine, it works even when we’re off the pill.”