Toward a research agenda on placebo.

Full Abstract

The placebo effect is about healing. The human healing process can be substantially influenced in actual medical practice by appropriate kinds of caring, communication, and patient empowerment. The creation of "meaning" and of "representations" by physicians and their patients can have dramatic effects on patients for good or ill. These effects are potentially as important in procedures such as surgery or chiropractic as they are in medicine generally. Placebo processes can substantially affect the overall response to health care and its cost, yet very little research specifically explores these phenomena. An explicit research agenda should be developed to investigate the influences of belief, context, and meaning in medicine. Such a research agenda would have significant beneficial scientific and policy consequences. In addition, it would enhance our understanding of those healing processes that underlie most if not all of medicine.

Author information

Author/s: Moerman, D E (DE); Jonas, W B (WB);

Affiliation: Department of Behavioral Sciences, University of Michigan-Dearborn, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Advances in mind-body medicine (Adv Mind Body Med), published in SCOTLAND. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2000-; vol 16 (issue 1) : pp 33-46

Dates: Created 2000/03/31; Completed 2000/03/31; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 10714006, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

Comments and Corrections

CommentIn: Adv Mind Body Med. 2000 Summer;16(3):211-6. (PMID: 10934512)

CommentIn: Adv Mind Body Med. 2000 Summer;16(3):216-32. (PMID: 10934514)

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