Living Better Skeptically – The Blog of the Jackson Skeptical Society

Okay, so one of the few plausible defenses of all out hopeless alt-med is that it somehow harnesses “the” placebo effect.

Those of you who read medical literature no doubt cringe a bit at this – “the” placebo effect is just all of the effects unstudied and unaccounted for – it could be anything.

But there is, of course, another usage of the word – a sort of implication of psychosomatic effect.

It gets confusing. Here, someone sheds a little light on the subject.

Just be wary, because soon you’ll doubtlessly see the press claiming “placebo effect better than medicine!” or somesuch.