Placebos could save lives and health care dollars: so why can’t mainstream medicine put them to better use?

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Matthew Burke, the new director of Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital, counts among a group of placebo-effect researchers arguing these studies aren’t strictly failures at all, but missed opportunities for new ways to approach hard-to-solve problems, such as severe mental illness and chronic pain

. To their view, the placebo effect isn’t a hassle in clinical trials; it’s pointing to new solutions – ones that may save money, reduce side effects and make health care more equitable.

Consider the findings of the Finnish study from another perspective, Burke proposes. In the small-scale study, 37 patients participated. Altogether, 10 of them went into remission and another 18 had a positive treatment response. That means 75 per cent of patients got better, whether they were getting real or fake brain stimulation – a result worth exploring, Burke says. The Finnish researchers agreed.

For instance, Burke asks, would chronic pain patients prefer rTMS, a non-invasive, well-tolerated procedure with a high placebo effect, to an opioid prescription, with its risk of addiction? One area of research he is pursuing with colleagues at Harvard would study whether patients care if they are given an effective sham treatment without their prior knowledge.

 

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Because lying destroys trust?

Globe , your voice as a CDN paper has no regards, its regretful to even make this statement.....

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