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Beware the Nocebo Effect
An article at the NY Times looks at research into the "nocebo" effect. Named after the placebo effect, it's the term for when patient expectations do harm, rather than good. "When a patient anticipates a pill’s possible side effects, he can suffer them even if the pill is fake." The article describes several instances of patients getting the placebo in a drug trial, but reporting the expected side effects of the drug, rather than the benefits or nothing at all. Quoting:
"Consider the number of people in medical trials who, though receiving placebos, stop participating because of side effects. We found that 11 percent of people in fibromyalgia drug trials who were taking fake medication dropped out of the studies because of side effects like dizziness or nausea. Other researchers reported that the discontinuation rates because of side effects in placebo groups in migraine or tension drug trials were as much as 5 percent. Discontinuation rates in trials for statins ranged from 4 percent to 26 percent. ... In one remarkable case, a participant in an antidepressant drug trial was given placebo tablets — and then swallowed 26 of them in a suicide attempt. Even though the tablets were harmless, the participant's blood pressure dropped perilously low."
Drinks with HFCS give me migraines, for example. A sugar placebo would certainly have side effects not even considering the mind over matter aspect of the situation.
I think you might be begging the question here - precluding a nocebo effect based on something that may very well be a nocebo effect.
Or have you been through double blind tests?
Nocebo is a perfectly reasonable name. "Placebo" is from a Latin root meaning "to please". "Nocebo" means "I will harm". It may sound like a silly portmanteu, but "nocebo" has roots of comparable authenticity that give rise to how the word is used today.
It would be a real stretch to make "placebo" refer to all psychosomatic effects. That would differ both from its Latin roots and from its common usage, which connotes positive effects (or at least, sought-for effects).
It is a bit late for the New York Times to be figuring this out. "Nocebo" is more recent in English than "placebo" (it only took off in the 1980s), but it's not news to science.
or that Chiropractic treatment works. Or homeopathy, crystals, accupunture, tiger penis soup, Sea Horse balls, etc ...
And I once argued with a psychologist about their efficacy (for therapy). For the patient to get better, they have to want to change; then doesn't that make it a placebo?
"No!" blah balh blah blah.
"I see. But when I take a antibiotic, it either works or it doesn't. My belief or desire for it to work is irrelevant."
And then there are the very compelling arguments with data of the efficacy of anti-depressants.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, go ahead acuse me of being a Scientologist. But even kooks can be right sometimes for the wrong reasons. for example, Mormons. They say you can't drink alcohol.
Some placebos are sugar pills...
The good news (for you): almost no placebos in large medical trials are "sugar-filled" pills**.
The bad news (for everyone): ingredients of placebos are mostly unregulated, usually not published, and are often formulated to attempt to duplicate the known side effects of the medicine in question in a relatively benign manner.
**most actual pills, however, are sugar coated***, so in that sense almost all pills (including both real pills and placebo pills) are "sugar" pills...
***the coating of pills is often plastic phthalates (embedded with sugar and artificial colors), yet another thing to worry about when taking pills...
Psychological therapy works by using a conscious desire for change to find subconscious causes of undesired behavior and eliminate them. It is arguably psychosomatic, but not all psychosomatic effects are placebo effects.
Not a sentence!
Holy crap, a correct use of the phrase "begging the question"! You win one Internet.