Timeline for What is the right medical procedure to correct Meniscus problems?
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| Oct 12, 2015 at 9:18 | comment | added | rumtscho | @CareyGregory I'd take the sham surgery too, if somebody proves that it has the same strength of placebo effect when the patient knows it's placebo. But while fascinating, this discussion is not for a comment thread on the answer to an unrelated question. | |
| Oct 12, 2015 at 5:19 | comment | added | Count Iblis | The placebo effect has to be considered together with the nocebo effect. So, in the old situation where surgery was recommended you would have had a placebo effect from the surgery but also a nocebo effect from the diagnosis and the recommendation that the problem be fixed via surgery. Obviously, if you hear the news that you need surgery, then you won't have much faith in your knee getting better all by itself, you're more likely to believe that it will start to deteriorate until it gets fixed. The surgery then eliminates that nocebo and adds a placebo effect on top. | |
| Oct 11, 2015 at 22:01 | comment | added | Carey Gregory♦ | @rumtscho But if placebo is equally effective and carries a .001% chance of complications, wouldn't you prefer that? Even if you say no, I think the problem will be for the surgeons. How do they justify that 5% risk knowing the procedure has no actual benefit above and beyond placebo, which is the usual criteria for judging effectiveness? | |
| Oct 11, 2015 at 16:07 | comment | added | rumtscho | @CareyGregory but the point is that the procedure is not ineffective, it's "not more effective than placebo". So, if it has, say, 75% chance of helping and 5% chance of complication, as a patient, I'd want it. | |
| Oct 11, 2015 at 14:43 | comment | added | Carey Gregory♦ | @rumtscho I would imagine the real surgery carries far greater risk of complications. If the procedure is ineffective then that risk is unacceptable. | |
| Oct 11, 2015 at 10:23 | comment | added | rumtscho | I find the conclusion amusing. If both real and sham surgery improved the outcome, why wouldn't the surgery still be done? Just because some physicians hate the placebo effect? | |
| Oct 10, 2015 at 17:27 | history | answered | Count Iblis | CC BY-SA 3.0 |