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Comment by hyperpallium2 | Hacker News Reader

It's been experimentally shown that the placebo effect is enhanced by being administered in a hospital-like setting, by a person dressed as a doctor, with a big + on a big pill.

My personal theory is that if you have convincing evidence that you are safe and being looked after, your body can divert resources to deal with the problem, instead of being on guard.

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I agree. Similarly relativism can evaporate some pain. You can feel pretty bad if you think you're alone in a situation. Just knowing someone went through the same issue relieves part of the pain, even though nothing changed in your life.

Which begs the question: If placebos (sometimes) work, (particularly when administered in hospital settings and when expensive, at least in the eyes/brain of the patient) is it unethical to administer/provide them?

It is unethical to say that you are administering a medicine when you are not doing it, except in trials to which the subject has agreed.

I 100% agree, but that doesn't mean we can't still administer placebos:

I've read elsewhere that you don't have to lie to the person to still have a successful placebo effect- they can still receive a benefit even knowing it's not a real drug.

Placebos work even when people know it's a placebo. We might want to establish a baseline, like the pretender has to remind the patient he's just a pretender once a year. But if a pretend doctor can help, then go for it.

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