The Placebo Alternative

Dr. Robert W. Lash is an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School.

He says,

For a drug to be effective it should work better than a placebo, but in most drug studies the placebo itself often has a measurable success rate—often around 20 percent. Thus, even if an alternative therapy is no more effective than a placebo, you’re still left with a one in five chance of feeling better at the end of the day. For some people, even this 20 percent chance of feeling better is worth it.

While most patients believe otherwise, medicine is too often governed by statistics.

I’ve posted another alternative: A Better Doctor