Article is from 2017.

quote:

Scientists have been studying this incredibly complex interface in great detail over the past 15 years, and they’re finding that sugar pills are stranger and more useful than we’ve previously imagined. The new science of placebo is bringing new understanding to why alternative treatments — like acupuncture and reiki — help some people. And it could also potentially allow us to one day prescribe smaller doses of pain drugs to help address the opioid crisis currently ravaging America.

Most instructively, the science finds that since we can’t separate a medicine from the placebo effect, shouldn’t we use it to our advantage?

https://getpocket.com/explore/...source=pocket-newtab

Also use it to cut costs and inflate billings?
- Prescribe cheap sugar pills to cut costs.
- Bill you big dollars so you think you are getting million dollar drugs.

Can't help to wonder how the economic incentives and real-world implementation of using placebos would work.

Sure, placebos are in some ways cheaper that real drugs. But how do you bill the insurers for placebos? What happens to the placebo effect after the patent sees in the bill or insurance "explanation of benefits" statements that what he took was really just a placebo?

If the placebo effect hinges on keeping the patients in the dark, what does that mean to the ethical guidelines for informing patients about their treatments?

I find research about the placebo effect fascinating, so I need to read this (if I did read it back in 2017, I've forgotten... :P