The Placebo Effect
[ EL028 ]

This course is cancelled in 2023. We hope to offer it again in the spring of 2024.

The placebo effect has been studied since the 1950’s, starting with the original 1955 study of Beecher. In this course we will discuss several postulated underlying mechanisms of the placebo effect (e.g. expectancy, conditioning, affect-modulation, and doctor-patient communication). Furthermore we will debate the existence of the placebo effect and discuss the challenges in measuring the effect. Questions that will be addressed are for instance: can you deliver an open label placebo? Is it ethical to prescribe a placebo when a patient doesn’t know he is getting a sugar pill? Does the placebo effect exist outside of pain medication research? You will experience the strength of the placebo effect first hand in an experiment during the course.

The assessment of the course will exist of the presentation of a research proposal for studying the placebo effect.

Gaining knowledge about

• The underlying mechanisms of the placebo-effect

• Methodological issues in measuring the placebo effect

• Ethical issues in the application of placebo’s

Assignment(s), Attendance

T.B.A.