Placebo: Cracking the Code

this video and website may help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpMg0eTtoxY
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/media-spotlight/201211/exploring-the-placebo-effect

At the beginning of the assigned video, “Placebo: Cracking the Code” it is asserted that the “placebo effect challenges the foundation of modern medicine.” Why is this the case? Why is the concept of the placebo effect particularly important and relevant to the field of health psychology? Finally, what ethical issues are involved with the use of the placebo as a pain control treatment in research and in actual clinical treatment? In effect, is a doctor who prescribes a sugar pill (even if it works) to lessen symptoms harming a patient? What do you think of the use of the placebo? I just would like to mention that I do believe that placebos do work.

SAMPLE SOLUTION

The Placebo Effect
The placebo effect has been a topic of discussion since it was first brought into the limelight by anesthesiologist Henry K. Beecher in 1955 in his paper “The Powerful Placebo.” The placebo is often regarded as the part of the potential possessed by humans to interact with the healer. Distress suffered by patients may be relieved by a remedy not backed by any medical basis. The controversy over the use of the placebo stems from the fact that medicine is based on science and that the physicians should use science-based evidence in treating their patients (Finniss, et al., 2010). Therefore, when doctors rely on ‘deception’ in efforts to steer clear of the use of potentially injurious…