Placebos - BBC2 Horizon 17th Feb 2014

Just watched this documentary mentioning all the usual things we already know about placebos and reasonably informative if you didn't. But they did include a operation without the actual treatment going ahead and acupuncture with "pretend" needles - both of which produced good outcomes.


I feel that they could have taken it a lot further.
Here are some questions:
1. Once the trials ended, many patients were trying to seek out their placebo pills at health food shops - none available. What about making them available?
(or try homeopathy perhaps?)


2. The trials suggested that even just talking to patients helped. I feel that there could be much more study into this. And what happens when the patients are left to their own devices?


My opinion it is  psychoneuroimmunology at work.

And it is the addition of a third party (a human) who makes treating the condition seem valid and so works.
Hence the value that complementary practitioners bring to the world.