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Take Your Placebos, Or Die

In a trial of drugs for heart disease, one group who took their drugs regularly, as directed were 40% less likely to die than those who did not. 

The catch? Both of those groups were taking placebos. From NeuroSkeptic

What the placebo adherence effect demonstrates is that there may be confounds no-one has thought of. They might even be impossible to measure. And if these mystery confounds can literally kill you, they can probably cause all kinds of other effects too.

The patients were corrected for every health and lifestyle factor they could think of. So there must be a cause, we just have no freakin’ clue what it is.

Placebo effect, you win this time …

    • #science
    • #placebo
    • #medicine
    • #neuroskeptic
  • 3 weeks ago
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202 Notes/ Hide

  1. acids-of-micronesia liked this
  2. fuckyeahdostoevsky reblogged this from daisysnotebook
  3. daisysnotebook reblogged this from pestilense
  4. a-fool-s-hope reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  5. redwineonawhitebed reblogged this from jtotheizzoe and added:
    Sort of - the “both of the groups” is misleading. Basically people who were better at remembering to take the pills on...
  6. theotheinvisible reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  7. frakir reblogged this from truth-has-a-liberal-bias and added:
    aka Why “No better than a placebo” does not mean worthless!
  8. theawesomeeducationalblog reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
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"When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained." - Mark Twain

There's a lot of science out there. I'm Joe, let me be your guide to big science news, wondrous science visuals, analysis-izations and all the otherwise cool science-y things out there, with all the woo and BS filtered out.

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