A new hypothesis in medicine: give patients drugs they know don’t work
I know a lady who was managing a convenience store &#x2F; pharmacy who eventually quit and became a reiki healer.  Prior to this kind of study any <i>real</i> scientist would <i>know</i> it&#x27;s total garbage.  But somehow she makes a living doing it.  Is it all duping?  I suspected not.<p>In my mind what people who paid her were getting was something that they almost universally can&#x27;t get inside the traditional medicine system here in the US at least, someone who cares.<p>Most encounters with doctors here in the US are 10 minutes or less at least for an office visit.  If you have a lot of symptoms or back-story or whatever the doc might cut you off and ask questions and keep directing the conversation rather than hear you out.  That might be an efficient use of their time, but it&#x27;s not good for the placebo effect to work because part of that seems to be caring, wanting the patient to get better, doing things (even things we <i>know</i> won&#x27;t work) to help.<p>This lady has I think only hour long appointments which are totally unheard of in the traditional system.  It&#x27;s not surprising that if the placebo effect is real that seeing someone who can really only <i>care</i> (or at least pretend to) could be effective.