it would be interesting to compare the 'price' of the treatment and how that affects the outcome.

ie: try this drug which costs you $25 (or maybe they just say it will cost $25 when put on the market) vs. try this $1000 drug

Mmm, that is an interesting comparison. Also, comparison by how old the treatments are: new drug vs. old drug.

It would also be fascinating to see what happens when patients are divided into multiple groups and all given placebos with different colors, sizes, and shapes. Another possibility would be how the placebo "treatment" is presented to the patient in terms of relative side effects, et cetera.

I assume that sham accupunture involves spending time with a doctor during the procedure.
Patient-doctor contact time might have a reportable effect on the patient aside from any actual medical procedure.

Galius, as reported in the Eureka alert write up
 

quote:

"These findings suggest that the medical ritual of a device can deliver an enhanced placebo effect beyond that of a placebo pill. There are many conditions in which ritual is irrelevant when compared with drugs, such as in treatment of a bacterial infection," said Kaptchuk, "but the other extreme may also be true. In some cases, the ritual may be the critical component."

So there ya go...

I think the more important thing to remark on is this
 

quote:

The enhanced placebo effect illustrated in this study applied only to subjective reports from patients about their perception of pain and the severity of their condition. More objective measures of grip strength showed no difference in improvements between the two placebos.

I'm not really suprised by this result. People generally feel that a pill is mysterious and have doubt about its effects even if it does work. A physical procedure on the other hand has a much higher effect on peoples mind as being able to do something. Although this is a worthwhile study, there really needs to be more work done on examining why a placebo pill can have more of an observable effect in one study than another.

I wish they had used placebo syringes. That is a medical ritual, and might have different placebo effects from a pill or acupuncture.

quote:

The side effects experienced by both placebo groups also showed up. One in four of the placebo-treated patients, and just under one in three of the sham acupuncture patients experienced the side effects listed on the consent forms, which raises interesting questions about informed consent and side effect reporting in clinical trials.

Sort of an aside here, but in practice, we try to minimize the effects of this. People will ask if the side effects are listed on their prescriptions, and we tell them that yes, they are, but we follow this up by advising them not to read them unless they actually feel ill. People will experience side effects simply because they read about them before they take their meds.

Maddening, really. But completely unsurprising.

/quote
Often this is simply a sugar pill, but in studies looking at a physical procedure such as acupuncture, a sham procedure is carried out. Sham procedures are also utilised in research experiments to compare novel treatments. One of the great underlying mysteries about placebos is that they work, to a certain degree. Patients in placebo groups will get better, and they will also experience side effects, despite the absence of any active drug in their systems.
/endquote

How is that a mystery? Its simply mind over matter.

Here is a simple test/proof for it.


The next you get a cough/cold/flu/sickness thats none life threatening.(None life threatening, no law suits here) The next time you get sick, and your taking your usual remedies stop think to yourself evertime you take medication, I am not going to get better. Keep doing this till you get better and mark the length of time it takes.

After this, the next time you get sick, take half your usual dose and think, I am gonna get better.


The mind is a powerful tool. The merest suggestion of hope can do wonders.

quote:

How is that a mystery? Its simply mind over matter.

Here is a simple test/proof for it.


The next you get a cough/cold/flu/sickness thats none life threatening.(None life threatening, no law suits here) The next time you get sick, and your taking your usual remedies stop think to yourself evertime you take medication, I am not going to get better. Keep doing this till you get better and mark the length of time it takes.

After this, the next time you get sick, take half your usual dose and think, I am gonna get better.


The mind is a powerful tool. The merest suggestion of hope can do wonders.

Yes that will work one person will compare the time taken to get well from illness A to the time to get better from illness B while in the first case using symptom supressing agents and in the second case using symptom suppressing agents and mind power.

There are so many things wrong with this 'test/proof' that I don't know where to start...
Note that I am not making any claims about the therapy I am talking purely about the suggested test methodology.

Now if you had two (large) groups of people randomised by all variables involved (general health, outlook etc etc) and gave one group standard healthcare and the second group were given positive thinking exercises of some description (oh and we probably need a third group in there doing negative thinking exercises as well) and there was a statistical difference between the two (or three) groups then you might be able to claim something.

Laserboy