Placebo effect is weaker than I expected

ByPatrik Nygren

Even though it is a placebo (a placebo only) which contains no ingredients as a medicine but "medicine only for appearance", the fact that the condition improves by believing that it is a medicine is called "Placebo effectAlthough it is quite widely known, its effect seems to be weaker than what is thought.

Placebo effects are weak: regression to the mean is the main reason ineffective treatments appear to work
http://www.dcscience.net/2015/12/11/placebo-effects-are-weak-regression-to-the-mean-is-the-main-reason-ineffective-treatments-appear-to-work/


Regarding 'placebo effect', "Powerful Placebo" announced in 1955 by Henry Beecher, professor of anesthesiology at Harvard University, is known. According to David Kolkhawn of University College London pharmacist, in addition to this, 15 other studies showed an average improvement of 35% when given placebo.

However, Mr. Kolkhoun's argument is that "that number really is mixed with what was obtained by the placebo effect" and "what would be better in any way".

According to Mr. Corkhown, there are only cases in which placebo effects are included in the placebo effect even though there are actually only a few that are seen as placebo effects in the experiments and investigations, as a result, as a result, not a placebo effect It is said that.

"What is better in any way" is what the statistician Francis Galton mentioned in 1886 and "Return to averageIt is called. For example, if you go to a hospital at the worst physical condition and improve your physical condition the next day, I think that it is "thanks to the hospital", but in reality it would have been better without going to the hospital.

This "returning to the average" is not limited to medicine, it is what is happening elsewhere, Mr. Corkhown. Given that a number of car accidents caused by excessive speed caused speedy monitoring cameras to be installed in large quantities, the rate of accident occurrence the following year falls not "Thanks for installing a large number of cameras", "Because accidents in the previous year are one after another It is because the incidence rate is rising ". If you want to say that the occurrence of an accident has been reduced thanks to the camera, you need to check how the accident occurrence rate changed depending on the presence or absence of the camera at randomly selected places. At this time, if you are just following "How did you change from the previous year?", You will be deceived.

By the way, according to the paper published in Nature in October 2015, it is said that there is sometimes a similar effect when analgesic drugs are administered as a new drug, despite being a placebo. This placebo effect does not reproduce in Europe and Asia, it seems to be seen only in the United States.

Strong placebo response thwarts painkiller trials: Nature News & amp; Comment
http://www.nature.com/news/strong-placebo-response-thwarts-painkiller-trials-1.18511