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The Placebo Paradox
By Tracy Kolenchuk | Guest Writer for Wake Up World
When you research medicines, alternative medicines, even medical treatments that do not involve a physical substance, you will see reference to the “placebo effect”; statements such as:
X is no better than a placebo…
Y is probably just a “placebo effect“…
Treatment X is just a placebo…
Medicine X failed to beat a placebo in controlled clinical studies…
What is a placebo? What is the placebo effect? Is it real, fake, or something else? Is the placebo effect magic? No, but placebo effects are a paradox.
Merriam Webster defines the placebo effect thus: “improvement in the condition of a patient that occurs in response to treatment but cannot be considered due to the specific treatment used“. Thus, the placebo effect is a real effect in response to a treatment that cannot cause that effect. A paradox.
Source: http://philosophers-stone.co.uk/wordpress/2014/09/the-placebo-paradox/
