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I found this in The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton (1621):
--- And sometimes a strong conceit or apprehension, as [1617]Valesius proves, will take away diseases: in both kinds it will produce real effects. Men, if they see but another man tremble, giddy or sick of some fearful disease, their apprehension and fear is so strong in this kind, that they will have the same disease. Or if by some soothsayer, wiseman, fortune-teller, or physician, they be told they shall have such a disease, they will so seriously apprehend it, that they will instantly labour of it. A thing familiar in China (saith Riccius the Jesuit), [1618]If it be told them they shall be sick on such a day, when that day comes they will surely be sick, and will be so terribly afflicted, that sometimes they die upon it. Dr. Cotta in his discovery of ignorant practitioners of physic, cap. 8, hath two strange stories to this purpose, what fancy is able to do... --- from: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10800/10800-h/ampart1.html
I have attempted to edit this line, but was reverted: "The use of placebos as treatment in clinical medicine raises ethical concerns, as it introduces dishonesty into the doctor–patient relationship." However, for example, if the patient were *told* that they were being given a placebo, then there would be no dishonesty. It is possible that this statement is being taken out of context from the cited work. As it stands, the statement is misleading. Perhaps more context from the cited work can be given to illustrate the way in which giving a placebo might introduce dishonesty into a doctor-patient relationship. Gitpushoriginmaster (talk) 15:24, 26 November 2019 (UTC)
The first sentence has a questionable reference. As it contains a definition, the definition should be absolutely solid, not in contradiction (and best: in no means different) from the definitions given in the respective section, and the definition should refer to a reference that is outmost credible. These conditions do not seem to apply here, as the currenty reference 1 stems from one national academic society and not from democratically legitimzed regulatory, refers to only one indication, namely pain, and most importantly, refers to a very unusual situation, namely "placebo in pain management". Please note that such use is likely to be illegal! Placebos cannot be prescribed or purchased. Legal use of placebos is confined to clinical trials. However, there is a solid and extremely widely accepted reference for this topic, namely the Internationl Conference for Harmonization (ICH) with its guideline E10 "Choice of COntrol Group in Clinical Trials", issued and adopted in 2000. The sentence essential for placebo in this guideline is: "In a placebo-controlled trial, subjects are randomly assigned to a test treatment or to an identical-appearing treatment that does not contain the test drug." There are other important considerations below this sentence. Hence, it appears justified to modify the sentence to a definition: >>Placebo is expected to be an identical-appearing treatment that does not contain the test drug.<< You may also refer to the older US definition given in 21 CFR 314. §128, b 2 i: "Placebo concurrent control: The test drug is compared with an inactive preparation designed to resemble the test drug as far as possible." As the US FDA themselves contributed to and adopted finally ICH E10, they do not see a relevant difference between these definitions. All in all, please consider 1. modifying the first sentence, 2. removing reference 1 as far as definitions are concerned, 3. inserting the definitions given by ICH E10 and 21 CFR 314, 4. providing respective references.
When having done this, you might find that the section 1 (Definitions) might require re-editing. Then you might find also other sections of the placebo article that need improvement. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hajokrem (talk • contribs) 10:18, 10 December 2019 (UTC)
I have seen objections to the term "placebo effect" for a couple of reasons. Some are technical, basically that it is a fuzzy term that can cover a mixture of several effects that should be considered separately: reporting bias in RCT + social ritual healing (common knowledge is that going to the doctor and following her instructions make people better, and that expectation makes it happen) + various noise in remission statistics (reversal to the mean, spontaneous remission etc.); here is a possible source discussing it. Some are political: the name "placebo effect" allows cranks to say "well, there is an effect" and convince the public in a way "as efficient as sugar" does not (see the start of that though I doubt that is a reliable source by WP's standards).
I would think my first source is enough to justify a redirect from contextual effect to here and a small mention in the lead but I have no idea how well-received in the community those views are (if they are totally fringe, we probably should not). Non-expert me has found Google Scholar hits for "placebo effect" (163k) vs "contextual effect" (15k, most seem to be about medicine) that indicate the term is in use, but that is hardly convincing ("faith healing" scores 24k).
The political objections might be worth a discussion too somewhere but only if it is a sourceable view (not necessarily among practitioners, but also among skeptics, governmental bodies, etc.). For obvious reasons I found mostly opinion pieces to that effect. TigraanClick here to contact me 14:26, 11 February 2020 (UTC)
Reading the article feels like a true rollercoaster, which is pretty troublesome when you want to get a sense of the validity of the concept. What i mean is that the article contains several quotes and sources about deeming placebo insignificant, dubious or outright dismissible, while at the exact same time it provides factual data that its a very much existing, functioning and measurable concept, especially with pain, nausea, depression.
In its nature the article is completely self-defeating, because if its taken at face value, one is left with a PhD level demonstration of what gossip among scientists and medical professionals looks like with everyone throwing slanted/partial data in the pool, then at the end you are exactly where you started: It exists, maybe, but we cant really figure how much, but its most certainly insignificant, except when its not. I mean... is this supposed to be some red tape bureaucratic comedy? Whilst writing these articles, you might wish to provide a factual, on ground conclusion. An answer if you will instead of tossing in pro and contra data points left and right, creating an informational mire. 37.191.17.124 (talk) 00:21, 1 November 2021 (UTC)