ABSTRACT
Like the rising medical and popular interest in alternative medicine, there is growing interest in mind–body interactions that influence the course of disease and the effectiveness of treatment. This selection argues that biomedical concepts are limited in their ability to grasp such interactions, especially when placebos are defined narrowly as inert substances, and placebo effects are seen as inconvenient and difficult-to-measure noise in studies of treatment efficacy. The inadequacy of current models is evident in the fact that even treatments considered to work only by a placebo effect, such as acupuncture to relieve pain, can be obstructed by chemical means.
