Don Wei
Don Wei
Aug 25, 2017 · 1 min read

Interesting story and perspective, thanks for sharing. It is difficult to refute a large body of evidence for the placebo effect using one metanalysis from one group, especially when this group has been criticized, and opposite conclusions obtained from re-analysis by another group of the same body of data, (I am no expert but based on a cursory wikipedia search). For example, if you compare the placebo group to a no treatment group, that necessarily means the placebo group knows they are getting sham treatment. This is not representative of the effect in RCTs where patients do not know whether they are getting an active drug or not. That patient blinding matters in placebo effects has been demonstrated to my knowledge. Would be curious to hear your comments on this point.

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    Don Wei

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    Don Wei