Surgery as Placebo
- 1 July 1961
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Medical Association (AMA) in JAMA
- Vol. 176 (13), 1102-1107
- https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1961.63040260007008
Abstract
BIAS IN CONNECTION with a given procedure on the part of the physician, or the patient, is a complex and often misleading factor in the treatment of disease. Bias has many components, but it is nevertheless possible to separate and examine one of its powerful determinants, the placebo effect.1-3Specific attention could be directed to various areas in medicine; I have chosen to look into the matter as it concerns surgery. Surgery offers admirable possibilities for such study. Wolf2defines a placebo effect as "... any effect attributable to a pill, potion, or procedure, but not to its pharmacodynamic or specific properties." There is the possibility, then, that the surgeon or a surgical procedure can exert a placebo effect. In short, the problem is to investigate (1) the existence, nature, and extent of the placebo effect in surgery, and (2) the possibility that the placebo effect of theThis publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
- Increased Stress and Effectiveness of Placebos and "Active" DrugsScience, 1960
- Comparison of internal mammary artery ligation and sham operation for angina pectoris∗The American Journal of Cardiology, 1960
- EXPERIMENTATION IN MANJournal of the American Medical Association, 1959
- Evidence for Increased Effectiveness of Placebos With Increased StressAmerican Journal of Physiology-Legacy Content, 1956