Is Your Doctor Using All the Healing Tools Available to Help You?

Lessons From Recent Research About the Placebo Effect—From Art to Science

"Medicine has been of 2 minds, so to speak, regarding the placebo effect in clinical practice. On the one hand, the placebo is disparaged as an inert and deceptive intervention intended to please or placate the patient but without any potential to produce meaningful therapeutic benefit. On the other hand, placebo effects are touted as having the power to produce substantial symptomatic relief across a wide range of medical conditions. Until recently, scientific data that elucidate the mechanisms of placebo effects and evaluate their potential to significantly enhance patient care have been lacking. During the past decade, there have been advances in scientific research on the placebo effect, paving the way for evidence-based techniques for promoting placebo responses in clinical practice in ethically appropriate ways.¹ Additionally, practitioner surveys indicate that physicians today appear much more comfortable acknowledging the placebo effect as a therapeutic tool consistent with a scientific understanding …" - http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/306/23/2612.short - JAMA.
2011;306(23):2612-2613. doi:10.1001/jama.2011.1850
Also see Nocebo Effects, Patient-Clinician Communication, and Therapeutic Outcomes
JAMA. 2012;307(6):567-568. - See how your doctor might be harming you, whether they know it or not.
You can get these articles through your local library, EBSCO, or other free sources.  If interested, ask your librarian to help you "find more of the same".  Maybe Doctors, Nurses, and other Practitioners want to learn some "people skills".