re placebo effects in article aa calcom socal com daniel prince f n z calcom socal com daniel prince writes is there an effect where the doctor believes so strongly in a medicine that he she sees improvement where the is none or sees more improvement than there is if so what is this effect called is there a reverse of the above effect where the doctor doesn t believe in a medicine and then sees less improvement than there is what would this effect be called have these effects ever been studied how common are these effects thank you in advance for all replies these effects are a very real concern in conducting studies of new treatments researchers try to limit this kind of effect by performing studies that are blind in various ways some of these are o the subjects of the study do not know whether they receive a placebo or the test treatment i e whether they are in the control group or the test group o those administering the treatment do not know which subjects receive a placebo or the test treatment o those evaluating individual results do not know which subjects receive a placebo or the test treatment obviously at the point at which the data is analyzed one has to differentiate the test group from the control group but the analysis is quasi public the researcher describes it and presents the data on which it is based so that others can verify it it is worth noting that in biological studies where the subjects are animals such as mice there were many cases of skewed results because those who performed the study did not blind themselves it is not considered so important to make mice more ignorant than they already are though it is important that in all respects except the one tested the control and test groups are treated alike russell
