Placebo: The Belief Effect
by Dylan Evans
HarperCollins Publishers, £16.99, ISBN 000712612 3
“Placebos are treatments that only work if you believe in them.” My belief in accepting the merits of this book before a full reading was akin to placebo. I was enthralled by the topic before learning of its historical precedent in the words of Chaucer, before being given a critical account of the early research by the anaesthetist Beecher in the 1950s, and before smiling at stories of its ignorant adoption by alternative therapy communities. Whatever placebo was at work in my enthralment initially subsided, only to be replaced by the wealth of fascinating information and detail provided by Dylan Evans. Vocal sceptics are frequently guilty of dismissing various therapies, citing ‘placebo’ as their reason. What makes this book truly fascinating is its consistent critical dismissal of not only such therapies, but even the most compelling placebo research. Some of the early work by Beecher (famous for replacing morphine with saline for wounded WWII soldiers), and his Harvard colleagues, has entered into medical folk-lore as the benchmark and starting point for serious research into the area. Evans directs disapproval at several often-cited ‘placebo-drug’ studies for their low standards of methodology when compared with the testing of real drugs.
The reader is taken on a course of enlightening treatments to cure us of our misperceptions. From studies and anecdotal reports through to compelling success stories, ‘nocebos’ (the ‘bad’ side of placebos) and hypothetical examples, Evans steers our thinking to a final, quite simple conclusion. The power of the mind in curing all ills, as regularly touted by various alternative health practitioners, is not the only effect taking place.
The ‘Belief Effect’ is the essential component in placebos working. Anything else and it’s like trying to cure cancer with a sugar pill! Read this book – it’ll make you better, I promise.
