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Author Info
Up to three
names, write them
all; 4+, write first
name et al. (i.e.,
Smith et al.)
1. Jo Marchant
A Placebo
Treatment for
Pain

Source Type
(popular,
scholarly, trade,
government)

2. Shirley S.
Wang
Why Placebos
Work Wonders

Popular- The
Wall Street
Journal

Categorical
Does X exist?

Studies were
cited to show
that patients
improved by
taking a placebo,
even when they
knew about the
lack of active
ingredient.
Expectations are
what seem to
play a role in the
existence of the
placebo effect.
(paraphrased)

Definitional
Is X a Y?

Causal
Does X cause Y?
Is Y a result of
X?

Evaluation
Is it good or bad?
Fair or unfair?
Harmful or
beneficial?

Action
What should be
done about X?

The greater our

belief that a
treatment will
work, the better
well respond
(para. 12)

It is unethical to
deceive patients by
prescribing fake
treatments, of
course. But there is
evidence that
people with some
conditions benefit
even if they know
they are taking
placebos (para. 8)

...prescription
painkillers
caused nearly
7,000
emergency
room visits and
44 deaths each
day. How do we
tackle this
crisis?(para 23)
Researchers
want to know
more about how
the placebo
effect works,
and how to
increase and
decrease it. A
more powerful,
longer-lasting
placebo effect
might be
helpful in
treating health
conditions
related to
weight and
metabolism.

Right now, I
think evidence is
that placebo
changes not the
underlying
biology of an
illness, but the
way a person
experiences or
reacts to an
illness, Dr.
Kaptchuk says.
(para 18)

Jurisdiction
Who is
responsible?

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Author Info

Source Type

3. Suzi Gage
The ethicality
of prescribing
placebos

Popular- The
Guardian

4. Penny Sarchet
The Nocebo
Effect

Categorical

Definitional

Causal

Evaluation

The author
argues that the
placebo effect is,
in reality, just
regression to
the mean. In
other words, it is
what is expected,
when a person is
sick, they are
expected to get
better.
(paraphrased)

Informed
consent is a vital
part of the
doctor-patient
relationship, and
hopefully
placebo
treatments can fit
here without
compromising
it.(last para.)

If the act of
prescribing a
dummy treatment
can help a patient
psychologically,
there is an
argument that it
could be ethically
justified. The
potential harm
from possibly
misleading a
patient as to the
treatment is
outweighed by the
benefit to their
health via whatever
mechanism the
placebo effect
operates on. (para.
8)

While an inert
sugar pill
(placebo) can
make you feel
better, warnings
of fictional sideeffects (nocebo)
can make you
feel those too.

we must believe
in our doctors if
we are to gain
the full benefits
of their
prescribed
treatments, but if
we trust in them
too strongly, we

should doctors
warn patients about
side-effects if
doing so makes
them more likely to
arise?

Action

As scientists
begin to
determine how
the nocebo
effect works,
we would do
well to use their
findings to

Jurisdiction

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can die from
their
pronouncements.

Author Info

Source Type

Categorical

5. Kathryn T.
Hall, Joseph
Loscalzo, Ted J.
Kaptchuk
Genetics and
the placebo
effect: the
placebome

Scholarly-Trends
in Molecular
Medicine Journal

There have been

studies which
show that the
placebo effect is
more than just
report bias and
that the placebo
effect induces
similar effects
than that of
strong pain
medication, such
as morphine.
(paraphrased)

6. Steve
Silberman
Placebos are
getting more
effective.
Drugmakers are
desperate to
know why.

Popular- Wired

Definitional

Causal

manage that
most 21stcentury of all
diseases
anxiety.
Evaluation

Recent
innovative
neuroimaging an
d physiological
experiments hav
e fostered the
current
viewpoint that
placebo effects
are biological
responses to
psychosocial
environmental
cues surrounding
the
administration of
inactive (or
active)
treatments.
(para. 1)
To test products
internally,
pharmaceutical
companies
routinely run
trials in which a
long-established
medication and
an experimental
one compete

Action

Jurisdiction

As a result of
these
developments,
placebo
responses are
emerging as a
legitimate series
of biological
reactions that
must be
rigorously
characterized to
facilitate
efficient
pharmaceutical
development
and optimal
clinical care.
(para. 2)
"The placebo effect
was considered little
more than a
nuisance," he recalls.
"Drug companies,
physicians, and
clinicians were not
interested in
understanding its
mechanisms. They
were concerned only

A special task
force of the
Foundation for
the National
Institutes of
Health is seeking
to stem the crisis
by quietly
undertaking one
of the most

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Author Info

Source Type

Categorical

7. Jonathan
Keeney
Americans Are
Tops in the
World at Feeling
the Placebo
Effect.

Popular-Inverse,
opinion article

8. Lesley Stahl
Treating
Depression: Is
there a Placebo
Effect?

Popular-Video
Source 60
Minutes

the placebo
effect is getting a
lot of attention
because many
cases fall under
its very broad
definition, and
not all cases
should be
automatically
deemed the
placebo effect.
The difference
between
antidepressants
and placebo pills
is not
statistically
different.

against each
other as well as
against a
placebo. (shows
the comparison
of real drugs to
placebos)
Definitional

with figuring out

whether their drugs
worked better." (Is
the placebo effect
negative for other
potential treatments?)

Causal

Explanations of
the placebo
effect include its
broad definition,
the bodys
psychological
response to
expectations, and
the trends
increase solely in
the United
States.

Evaluation

ambitious datasharing efforts in

the history of the
drug industry.

Action

Jurisdiction

the placebo effect

is not very
influential, as it is
increasing, but
only in the United
States.

Antidepressants
are largely
effective due to
the placebo
effect.

Medication should
not be taken if it
does not provide
better results than
the placebo effect.

The Food and

Drug
Administration
sets a low bar for
antidepressants,
only two clinical
trials are needed
to show
antidepressants
as being more
effective than
placebos

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9. Tracey E.
Chan
Regulating the
Placebo Effect in
Clinical
Practice

10. Kate Faassee

et al. Department
of Psychological
Medicine,
University of
Auckland,
Auckland, New
Zealand
Seeing is
believing:
Impact of social
modeling on
placebo and
nocebo
responding

ScholarlyMedical Law
Review

Scholarly- Health
Psychology
Journal

The legal
literature
commonly
focuses on the
placebo as a
substance or
procedure
provided to a
patient that the
physician
believes or
knows has no
specific
pharmacological
or physiological
effect on the
condition being
treated, with the
purpose of
pleasing or
placating via
deceptive verbal
suggestions (2)
The nocebo
effect occurs
when expecting
to experience
unpleasant
side effects
results in these
symptoms being
experienced after
taking an inert
medication or
placebo (880)
Social Modeling
is learning to
imitate others by

The mechanism
behind the
placebo effect is
largely caused by
two basic
mechanisms of
action-the
expectation and
classical
conditioning
mechanisms (2)
does such
simulated
treatment
inherently
depend on
deception as to
the causal nature
of the therapeutic
method? (5)
The study
concluded that
The social
modeling of
symptoms can
substantially
reduce or
eliminate the
placebo effect.

Using
placebos in health
care involves
deception, which is
antithetical to
patient autonomy
and trust in the
physicianpatient
relationship. (1-2)

the placebo
effect may be
legitimately
accommodated
within common
law principles
on the basis that
it does not
engage the
requirement for
material or
quasi-fiduciary
disclosures of
information and
may also be
justified by the
therapeutic
privilege.(2)

Social modeling
(the actions of
others) is
considered a
potential cause
of the placebo
effect.

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Author Info

Source Type

11. Luana
Colloca et al.
Reevaluating
the Placebo
Effect in Medical
Practice

ScholarlyZeitschrift fr
Psychologie
Review article

Categorical

observing their
behavior, which
is closely linked
to individuals
behaviors
regarding taking
medication
Definitional

Causal

Evaluation

Action

Jurisdiction

a caring,
mutually
respectful and
engaged
relationship with
the patient can
lead to placebomediated
benefits (126)

The placebo effect

is being utilized
where pure
placebos (sugar
pills) are not being
used, but
analgesics,
vitamins, and
antibiotics are
being used, which
is an inappropriate
use of the placebo
effect.
(paraphrased, p.
125)

Clearly there
is no harm in
harnessing
placebo effects
in medicine, as
long as
deception
is avoided.
(126)

Clinicians
should convene
to produce
guidance on how
to address the
potential demand
for the use of
placebos
and placebo
effects with clear
and unequivocal
recommendation
s. (126)
Clinicians should
lay out the
rationale and
justification
to guide decision
making as
evidence
evolves, and a
transparent
process would be
needed for
weighing

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Author Info

Source Type

12. Irving Kirsch

Antidepressants
and the placebo
effect

ScholarlyZeitschrift fr
Psychologie

Categorical

Definitional
Antidepressants
are supposed to
work by fixing a
chemical
imbalance,
specifically, a
lack of serotonin
in the brain
Antidepressants
are essentially
considered to be
active placebos,
since for many
of them, it does
not matter if
serotonin is
increasing,
decreasing or not
changing at all.
(paraphrased p.
131)

Causal

Evaluation

Action

benefits
and risks
associated with
the use of
placebos and
placebo effects.
(126)
Jurisdiction

The conventional
wisdom
is that for a placebo
to be effective,
patients must
believe they are
receiving active
medication, which
entails
deception. Besides
being ethically
questionable, the
practice
of deceiving
patients runs the
risk of
undermining trust,
which may be one
of the most
important clinical
tools that
clinicians have at
their disposal.
(132)

Placebos should
be administered
because they
are almost as
effective as
antidepressants,
but elicit far
fewer side
effects (132).

The FDA (Food

and Drug
Administration)
has passed many
antidepressants
that have less
than a fifty
percent success
rate.

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Book

The placebo
effect is not
caused by the
placebo itself, as
the substance is
inert, rather it is
a coincidence of
the effect.

Author Info
Up to three
names, write them
all; 4+, write first
name et al. (i.e.,
Smith et al.)
14. Daniel
OLeary and
Thomas Borkovec
Conceptual,
Methodological,
and Ethical
Problems of
Placebo Groups
in Psychotherapy
Research

Source Type
(popular,
scholarly, trade,
government)

Categorical
Does X exist?

15. Bolton et al.

The ethics of
using placebo
medication in
non-capacitous
patient

Scholarly- Brain
Injury

13. Daniel E.
Moerman
Meaning,
Medicine, and
the Placebo
Effect

ScholarlyAmerican
Psychologist

..the
placebo
effect has a
biological
basis
placebos can
increase

Historically, the
word placebo is
translated to I
shall please and
over time this
has changed to
produce the
modern
definition, an
inert substance
given that is
beneficial to
ones health
Definitional
Is X a Y?

Regression to
the Mean is one
potential theory
to explain why
sick individuals
get better.

The whole
healing
process must
be understood
and evaluated
in order to
understand the
placebo effect
and modern
medicine.

Causal
Does X cause Y?
Is Y a result of
X?

Evaluation
Is it good or bad?
Fair or unfair?
Harmful or
beneficial?

Action
What should be
done about X?

The definition of
a placebo is
paradoxical, it is
supposed to be a
inert substance,
which causes a
real effect on the
body. This leads
to difficulty in
devising a
theoretically and
practically inert
placebo (823)

The placebo
methodology
leads to three
specific harms:
deception,
treatment
deterrent, and
minimal
improvement.

By using the
placebo effect,
deception is being
used as a legitimate
research tool.

The term
placebo group
should be
abandoned for
alternatives, such
as best available
therapies,
component
control
conditions,
neutral
expectancy
controls, and
counter demand
manipulations.

Deception, which
is thought to be a
key part of the
effect, is counterintuitive in
thinking about
patient well-being.

Instead of using
placebos for
difficult
patients,
empathic
consultation
strategies

Jurisdiction
Who is
responsible?

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dopamine
and opioids
in, amongst
other areas,
the
reward
centres of the
brain (1399)

should be used.
Placebos
should be
considered
when:
symptoms are
refractory to
standard
treatment; the
patient suffers
from severe
side-effects
from standard
treatment;
standard
treatment does
not exist; If
asked, the
physician
should be
honest; and
If the patient
is helped it
should not
be
withdrawn