Steve Silberman
My story is about the surprising power of the placebo effect — what happens in the brain and body when you think you’re taking medicine or receiving treatment — and the problems in the pharmaceutical industry caused by the increasing number of experimental drugs that are failing in clinical trials to outperform dummy pills used as controls.
It’s always gratifying to see a story you’ve worked hard on be embraced by readers, linked to by other journalists, and recognized by a venerable institution like the AAAS. Even Stephen Colbert ended up riffing on the seemingly absurd notion that sugar pills could perform better in a trial than an expensive experimental drug…”
Although my praise is not as important as that of the AAAS, I too found the piece lucid and important. Perhaps that is because it agrees with my own biases; I have often said that most of healing relies on the placebo effect, i.e. mobilizing the body and mind’s own powers.
Related:
- NeuroTribes (followmehere.com)
- So, What’s in a Placebo, Anyway? (nlm.nih.gov)
- Good Placebos Gone Bad (3quarksdaily.com)
- The Message of the Placebo (grantlawrence.blogspot.com)
- When is a Placebo Not Really a Placebo? Maybe More Often Than You Think (blogs.wsj.com)
- What’s In Your Placebo? (motherjones.com)
- The Kavli Prizes (cenblog.org)
