The history, philosophy, ethics, and science behind the placebo and nocebo effects.
Placebos are the most widely used treatments in the history of medicine. Thousands of studies show that they can be effective and make us happier and healthier. Yet confusion about what placebos are and how to measure their effects prevents some doctors from using them to help patients. Meanwhile, damage caused by the nocebo effect—the negative effect of expecting something bad—is not widely recognized.
In The Power of Placebos, Jeremy Howick provides an interdisciplinary perspective on placebos and nocebos based on more than twenty years of research and data from over 300,000 patients. This book, the culmination of that research, offers practical ways for researchers, policymakers, and doctors to put placebo and nocebo research into practice to improve health outcomes.
In addition to providing an overview of placebos and nocebos and explaining how belief systems and context can create physiological effects in the body, Howick advocates for a number of controversial positions, including why it may be unethical to include placebos in most clinical trials in which there are already established therapies and why physicians should consider using placebos regularly in their practices. Howick also underscores the importance of the therapeutic effects of interactions between health care practitioners and patients, in the context of care. The Power of Placebos dispels the confusion surrounding placebos and paves the way for doctors to help patients by enhancing placebo effects and avoiding the pitfalls of nocebos.
By:
Jeremy Howick
Imprint: Johns Hopkins University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 25mm
Weight: 635g
ISBN: 9781421446387
ISBN 10: 1421446383
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 14 November 2023
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Acknowledgments Chapter 1. A Manifesto for the Next Revolution in Nocebo and Placebo Studies Part I. The Troubled Story of Placebos and Nocebos Chapter 2. Please Me, Please: Placebos and Nocebos in Practice Chapter 3. Placebo Components and Meaningful Contexts: What Makes Inert Things Effective Chapter 4. It Depends: The Relativity of Placebos and Nocebos in Clinical Trials Part II. How Big are Placebo and Nocebo Effects? Chapter 5. How (Not) to Measure Nocebo and Placebo Effects Chapter 6. Missing the Forest for the Trees: Incomplete Stories about the Inner Workings of Placebos Chapter 7: Placebo and Nocebo Effects Don't Add Up Chapter 8: Blinding: Stopping People from Peeking through Masks Part III. Why Every Doctor Needs to Be a Shaman and Why Placebo Controls Need to be Controlled Chapter 9. The Ethical Requirement to Prescribe More Placebos and Avoid Nocebo Effects in Practice Chapter 10. Fewer Placebos and Nocebos in Trials: A Plea to Return to the Original Declaration of Helsinki Chapter 11. Public Health, Surgery, and Alternative Medicine: Special Topics Chapter 12. The Next Placebo Revolution: Helping Dad Appendices 1. Adolf Grünbaum's Model and a Reply to Its Critics 2. Binary Outcomes May Underestimate Placebo Effects 3. Additivity versus Interaction: A Formalization 4. Balanced Placebo Design 5. The Nocebo Effect as a Smokescreen in the Great Statin Debate 6. The Many Faces of Blinding: Clarifying the Terminology 7. An Open Letter to the World Medical Association 8. More on Noninferiority Trials References Index
Jeremy Howick (LEICESTERSHIRE, UK), PhD is the director of the Stoneygate Centre for Excellence in Empathic Healthcare and a senior researcher at Oxford University. He is the author of Doctor You and The Philosophy of Evidence-Based Medicine.
