{"id":688,"date":"2006-11-22T00:21:22","date_gmt":"2006-11-22T00:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/archives\/688"},"modified":"2006-11-22T00:21:22","modified_gmt":"2006-11-22T00:21:22","slug":"no-acupuncture-vs-no-pill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/archives\/688","title":{"rendered":"No acupuncture vs. no pill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.discover.com\/issues\/apr-06\/rd\/placebo-placebo\/\">Discover Magazine<\/a> describes a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/abstract\/bmj.38726.603310.55v1\">cute study<\/a> where they pit fake acupuncture (with secretly retracting needles) vs. sugar pills to see which placebo effect works better:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>After 10 weeks, subjects taking sham pills said their pain decreased an average of 1.50 points on the 10-point scale. After 8 weeks, those receiving fake acupuncture reported a drop of 2.64 points. In other words, not receiving acupuncture reduces pain more than not taking drugs.<\/p>\n<p>Kaptchuk says that the rituals of medicine explain the difference: Performing acupuncture is more elaborate than prescribing medicine. Other rituals that may make patients feel better include &#8220;white coats, and stethoscopes that you don&#8217;t necessarily use, pictures on the wall, the way you reassure a patient, and the secretaries that sign you in.&#8221; Careful manipulation of such rituals could make all types of treatment more effective, Kaptchuk suggests.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>(Thanks to Jill for the link!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.discover.com\/issues\/apr-06\/rd\/placebo-placebo\/\">Discover Magazine<\/a> describes a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/abstract\/bmj.38726.603310.55v1\">cute study<\/a> where they pit fake acupuncture (with secretly retracting needles) vs. sugar pills to see which placebo effect works better:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>After 10 weeks, subjects taking sham pills said their pain decreased an average of 1.50 points on the 10-point scale. After 8 weeks, those receiving fake acupuncture reported a drop of 2.64 points. In other words, not receiving acupuncture reduces pain more than not taking drugs.<\/p>\n<p>Kaptchuk says that the rituals of medicine explain the difference: Performing acupuncture is more elaborate than prescribing medicine. Other rituals that may make patients feel better include &#8220;white coats, and stethoscopes that you don&#8217;t necessarily use, pictures on the wall, the way you reassure a patient, and the secretaries that sign you in.&#8221; Careful manipulation of such rituals could make all types of treatment more effective, Kaptchuk suggests.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>(Thanks to Jill for the link!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mind-and-brain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}