Main description:

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. Marvel of the Mind dispels the confusion surrounding placebos and paves the way for doctors to help patients by enhancing placebo effects and avoiding the pitfalls of nocebos.

Contents:

Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: A Manifesto for the Next Revolution in Nocebo and Placebo Studies
Part I: The Troubled Story of Placebos and Nocebos
2. Please me, Please: Placebos and Nocebos in Practice
3. Inert Things with Effects
4. It Depends: The Relativity of Placebos and Nocebos in Clinical Trials
Part II: In Search of Placebo and Nocebo Effects
5. Missing the Forest for the Trees: Incomplete Stories About How Placebos Work
6. How (Not to) Measure Nocebo and Placebo Effects
7. Placebo and Nocebo Effects Don't Add Up
8. Blinding: When it's Important to Prevent People from Peeking Through Masks
Part III: Why Every Doctor Needs to be a Shaman, Placebo Controls should be Banned in Most Trials, and There is no Place for Unnecessary Nocebo Effects
9. The Ethical Requirement to Prescribe More Placebos and Avoid Nocebo Effects in Practice
10. Fewer Placebos and Nocebos in Trials: A Plea to Return to the Original Declaration of Helsinki
11. Public Health, Surgery, and Alternative Medicine: Special Topics
12. The Next Placebo Revolution: Helping Dad
Appendix
Index